I never worried about Captain Science being expose to a diverse enough assortment of people. Our family isn’t monochromatic. The kids’ godmother is black, our dear family friend who is for all intents and purposes their aunt is Japanese (lives in Japan, visits yearly), their great-grandfather is Mexican. Captain Science went to a Montessori school for three years. It was owned by an Iranian couple and the ethnic/racial make up of the school was mainly Iranian, Indian, black, Chinese, and white, in that order. From there, he moved to the public school, which adequately represented our part of the county’s diverse makeup. His classmates were white, black, Hispanic, Arabic, of varying religions and socioeconomic backgrounds. Being around people of all colors was normal for him.
Now we’re homeschooling, though, and that has changed. The homeschool co-op is predominantly white. Most of the children he plays with regularly are white, because that the demographic of our street in the neighborhood. Every child in The Tank’s preschool is white (and most are Methodist, because it’s a Methodist preschool and their parents belong to the church — we don’t). When we go to the local playgrounds, they seek out playmates of all colors, but they just aren’t getting the same sort of daily exposure to diverse groups that Captain Science used to have.
This worries me. How do other homeschoolers address this issue? Do they address it at all? Do they worry about their child being limited to other children who are of the same race, religion, and/or socioeconomic status? I know that for some homeschooling parents, this is exactly what they strive for, but to me, it’s one of the few down sides to homeschooling. Most of the homeschoolers around here are white and that’s just the way it is. It’s not like I can magically manifest a more diverse group of kids, just to compensate for that uncomfortable feeling of homogeneity.
I think race is an important issue to address, though. I don’t buy into the whole “we live in post-racial times” nonsense. We don’t. Having a president with his own diverse background doesn’t completely eliminate racial (or socioeconomic) tensions and disparity in this country. It was just so much easier to talk about diversity when we were in a group that was actually diverse.
