Educational pioneers

Education | African-American homeschooling is on the rise | Tiffany Owens

Vanessa Oden (Photo by Gary Fong/Genesis)

Californian Vanessa Oden remembers the day homeschooling paid off. Her 4-year-old daughter looked at her and admitted that she loved her teacher. "I didn't know who she was talking about. I thought maybe her ballet teacher, Sunday school teacher, and then she said, 'You—you're my favorite teacher. I love your school.'"

Before homeschooling, Oden spent years teaching numerous grades and subjects in both public and private schools. She calls education "her thing" and loves teaching. But then she found herself with less freedom—"times in class when my hands were tied"—and fewer resources, with administrators saying she needed to teach children merely to pass state tests. She observed bullying, teen sex in school bathrooms, and teacher bias. Parents begged her to take children who were being left behind into her class: "There were some children who couldn't count to 10."