My husband and I decided to educate our children before they were born. We made the decision more than 20 years ago based on the education system we believed would help our children reach their full potential. Homeschooling felt like the only educational choice to help us achieve that goal as we began to build a legacy in a new country.
As first-generation immigrants, we believed that investing in our children’s education was the answer to a better future. We found that homeschooling had all the elements we needed to help our children learn and develop the character and skills to succeed in life.
But as a Hispanic mother still learning English, it was overwhelming to navigate the homeschooling process and understand how the US education system worked. Spanish was my first language; the bureaucratic education system was a language of its own. Many times, I felt lonely being the only Hispanic in the room.
Before the pandemic, it was rare to find other Latino homeschooling families. For many Latinos, homeschooling seems like a strange idea. In Latin American countries, education takes place in schools and teachers are seen as the only ones who can guide and prepare children for a successful future.
But when schools closed and districts returned to distance learning during the pandemic, homeschooling began to flourish. Parents watched as their children struggled to learn, and many felt trapped in a system that didn’t work.
Homeschooling researcher and psychologist Steven Duvall
directed
this rapid change in homeschool demographics brought about by the pandemic. According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics and US Census Bureau Survey, in 2016, the percentage of Hispanic school-aged children who were homeschooled was 3.5%; in 2021, it jumped to 10.3%, and in 2022, it was 8.9%.
The shift to homeschooling has also changed the way first-generation Hispanic parents like myself think about education. Some of these parents are still adjusting to American culture, learning English and working hard to build their American dream. But they are realizing that they cannot afford to ignore their children’s educational needs, because if they don’t protect their children, who will?
Hispanic families are also recognizing the cultural value of homeschooling. With their children homeschooled, they can provide them with a bilingual and personalized education. They are better able to preserve their Hispanic heritage and can teach their children to embrace and appreciate the richness of Hispanic culture, learn its history, and study its language.
Many have asked us how we managed to balance the responsibilities of homeschooling with our other obligations. They want to know how a Spanish teacher and construction manager managed to homeschool their children.
To be sure, our family had to overcome many challenges to make homeschooling work. Latinos are family-oriented, so our support system sometimes included grandparents, other relatives, and church friends. English educational resources that we could access were also vital.
More than a decade later, and our second child is graduating high school this year and plans to pursue a finance degree. Our firstborn is finishing his second year in college studying engineering. And our third is a rising high school student.
The Hispanic community needs to understand that what was possible with our family is possible with theirs. However, this message can be difficult to spread among families with language limitations.
This is why providing information about homeschooling in Spanish is essential. Several organizations, including TransitionEd and The Latinos Homeschooling Group, are leading the effort.
But other home school organizations, including those at the state level, must rally around these families and communities and offer support. A great example of what this support can look like is HSLDA’s first Spanish
Homeschool conference, held earlier this year.
Homeschooling may not be for everyone, but parents should at least have the opportunity to learn about the various educational opportunities out there. I am glad that my husband and I homeschooled our children and that through our experience we were able to silence the opinions of others and even our own fears. We learned that, at its core, homeschooling is not about parenting skills, but about helping children reach their full potential.
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Karim Morato is the head of Hispanic outreach for the Home School Legal Defense Association.
