Homeschooling explodes among black families

By Michael Ashcraft –

Keilana Davis doesn’t give a flying fig about the leftist slander against homeschooling. They say parents are not qualified teachers, homeschooling is a hotbed for extremism, etc., etc., etc.

“The proof is in the pudding,” says Keilana (pronounced Kuh-LEEN-uh). “I look at my daughter. She is a well-rounded and social being. Everywhere we go, people compliment on how well-mannered she is.”

Then more importantly: “Why would we put our child into a system that doesn’t teach God? They got rid of God from the school system. They want us to go to work and give our children over to them to raise and teach a reality without God.”

Keilana Davis belongs to the fastest-growing segment of the burgeoning homeschooling sector: African Americans. According to recent Census data, black parents who homeschool jumped fivefold in a mere six months, from 3.3% to a startling 16.1% from April to October 2020, as reported by wng.org.

God is big reason why African Americans are fleeing public schools. Keilana and her husband Brian (nicknamed Goose), an attractive Hollywood barber for the stars, don’t want their daughter to be taught there is no God and, consequently, no absolute moral code.

Ella is the joint product of their blended marriage. At first, they weren’t sure they wanted to have children since both had a child from before they were married. But when a health care professional, meaning no harm, recommended a hysterectomy due to some non-cancerous growths, Keilana reacted strongly in opposition and concluded she wanted a child.

“I absolutely defied the idea of removing my female body parts,” she recounts. “On that journey, the conversation between me and God and my husband started to unfold about having a child. I got to the point where I literally threw my hands up in surrender to God.

“And out came Ella Grace.”

From birth, Ella was a people magnet, drawing cooing admiration everywhere she went. Keilana quit her hotel job and became a full-time mom. Everywhere she went, Keilana kept running into Christian moms who raved about homeschooling. Slowly a conviction grew in her that she must homeschool, and by the time Ella was old enough for school, it was ironclad.

“The Holy Spirit prompted me to do so. I felt the strongest conviction,” she remarks. “I felt an overwhelming desire and call to not put her into the system. I knew that so much of what was special about her would be lost and changed. God said, ‘Protect this. Keep this child special.’”

Since starting, she has fallen in love with the job. Ella gets to do piano, gymnastics and equestrianism. She’s a natural and eager learner. Keilana can individualize study for her daughter and avoid the public school’s cookie cutter approach.

More importantly, she can steer her daughter clear of the godless agenda being instilled in the public schools.

“There’s a whole agenda that we paid closer attention when we had a small child. We very clearly saw the agenda of ‘your children are not your children. You go off and let us raise your children,’” Keinlana says, wishing to avoid “the public school system of indoctrination. As people of faith, we don’t believe that’s what God wants. We very much want God as the center of our lives. When children go to public school, they’ve extracted God from the school system. Why would we put our child into a system that doesn’t teach God?”

Should financial hard times come, the Davises would sooner pare back their lifestyle than give up homeschooling. Keilana sees parents with dual careers that come home so exhausted they have no time to spend with their kids, making the teacher the de facto major influence raising their children.

Keilana works as a financial professional to compliment the household income. The mothers she meets at the park or at gymnastics become friends and potential clients.

“This is God’s design, He always makes a way,” Keilana says. “This is the design for families. The man goes out and works, the woman stays home, we’re the helpmates. Raising a family is no small task. It is two and three times what a man goes out there and does.”

If you want to know more about a personal relationship with God, go here

Michael Ashcraft teaches at the Lighthouse Christian Academy in Santa Monica, CA.