Black Literary Awareness for Cultural Knowledge (B.L.A.C.K.)

Playing During "School" Time

By: Unknown on 10:27 PM / comment : 1 african-centered homeschool, First Robotics Competition, homeschooling, Lifeschooling With Purpose, robotics, STEM, Stem Programs for Minorities, summer camps, technology

Perhaps it wasn't a bad idea after all to let my five year old son, Gyasi, spend his early homeschooling years building intricate robots from paper boxes, designing web pages, producing comical movies about his six sisters, or digging up rocks, bugs and other organic matter in our backyard.  Twelve years later, Gyasi, now seventeen and soon to graduate, will use the skills he acquired during those "unschooling" years to compete next weekend in a national robotics competition.

As a working, life-schooling mom of seven,  I just didn't seem to have enough time in the day to instruct Gyasi in a lot of formal lessons.  At a young age, he was determined to become a famous physicist, although this has since changed to computer scientist.

 In those early years, I worried less about getting enough "schooling" in and afforded my children opportunities to do what they love---exploring, building, designing, and creating.

After a few hours of "table time" lessons in math, grammar, and writing, we spent our afternoons in what we called, "productive leisure time", when the children were able to "play" engineer, doctor, banker, social worker, seamstress and more.  Today, my youngest spends her productive leisure time playing Minecraft, the popular, technologically-advanced video game used by educators across the nation to teach science, history, and language.

I am content that several of my "unschooled" children are not only honor roll students in college, but have a life-long love for learning, know how to live and not just make a living, and more importantly, use their God-given gifts and talents to enrich the lives of other people.  I would not trade my precious memories of our productive leisure time together in the backyard for the highest SAT scores, scholarships, or salaries in the world! Now that several of my children have left the nest, I cherish those memories even more and am often saddened that the time went by too fast.


 The FRC is the Nation's top engineering challenge for STEM students.  The students work with mentors and instructors several weeks leading up to the competition to design, build, and program a robot they hope will win the competition.  It is an outstanding program that allows students to use their engineering and computer programming skills in practical applications. While Gyasi and Tumie acknowledge building the robot for the competition is hard work, the prospects of their robot winning keep them motivated.

Next week's competition, expected to attract a crowd of over 20,000, promises to be fun for the whole family. It is really quite mesmerizing to see the student-built robots strutting their stuff like hyperactive, colorful peacocks in the competitor ring before the large crowds and judges.  The robotic teams operate the computers remotely from a distance, holding their breaths and hoping it will perform as programmed.

If your lifeschooler likes to spend his productive leisure time building, designing, constructing or playing computer games, he will definitely enjoy the FRC Robotics Competition. And you need not feel guilty about letting him "play" Minecraft or other video games during "school" time; He might just use his gaming skills to develop an award-winning computer application later in life.

Do you ever feel like you are not getting enough "school" time in with your little ones?  Are you concerned that you aren't doing enough to prepare them for standardized tests?  I'd love to hear your comments.

The Dangers of a Distorted Perspective

By: Unknown on 12:43 AM / comment : 0 African-centered education, african-centered homeschool, afrocentric, black, black history, homeschool, Lifeschooling With Purpose

"History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on the map of human geography. It tells them where they are, but more importantly, what they must become."

Can the African Centered Educational Model Be Used By People of All Faiths?

By: Unknown on 8:50 AM / comment : 0 African centered curriculum, African-centered education, african-centered homeschool, Afrocentric Curricula, black history

The African-Centered educational model can be used by people of all faiths.  While many Pan-Afrikan scholars and educators (the “k” in Afrikan representing African people collectively across the globe, rather than only on the continent), "acknowledge Afrikan spirituality as an essential aspect of the uniqueness of people of the African diaspora" and seek to make it an instrument of their liberation, this is the more conservative view.  An African-centered education can take shape in many forms in varying degrees by different people, but at the core of the educational model is the practice of placing the history and cultural heritage of children of the Diaspora at the center of the educational process to foster a world view whereby children of color begin to see themselves and their African ancestors as major contributors to world civilizations, rather than mere observers on the sidelines of history.

B.L.A.C.K. tutors use academic encounters with controversial scientific theories like evolution and young earth theories, which may come into play in some Afrocentric curricula, as opportunities to further develop critical thinking skills in students.  Students are encouraged to dig deeper in their research, to think deeply, and to come to their own conclusions and analyses, based on the historical facts and what they have been taught to believe.  The Kemetic Circle, for example, is a major component of the B.L.A.C.K. series of history classes, which allow students opportunities to hone in on their classical rhetorical and didactic skills, while effectively discussing and debating in small group circles the basis and validity of controversial theories, using sound academic language, terminology, and textual references.

For B.L.A.C.K. students, many of whom are reared on solid spiritual foundations, the Afrocentric learning methodology has affirmed their faith while allowing them at the same time to gain a greater understanding of and appreciation for people from all walks of life. B.L.A.C.K. classes, which are multi-cultural and include students from all religious backgrounds, are not taught from a particular spiritual world view.  They are history, art, and literature classes which are taught from an African and African-American center, where B.L.A.C.K. students are presented with an additional world view that builds on who God has created them to be and encourages them to view things through the lenses of their African ancestors.

For me personally, as a B.L.A.C.K. tutor, since beginning my studies of Ancient Africa, I have come to new levels of knowledge as it relates to my own spirituality and that of my African ancestors, who were forcibly removed from their homelands and stripped of their language, identity, culture and spirituality.  When one begins to peel back the layers of disinformation and Eurocentric propaganda, a very different but clearer picture emerges of a deeply spirited people who saw the Almighty Creator in every aspects of their daily lives, in nature, and in all of God's awesome creation. As one studies to show himself approved, a good workman unto God, rightly dividing the Word of truth, one is amazed to learn that all major religions of the world, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, have their origins in Ancient Africa.

The African-centered educational model can be used by people of all faiths because it was out of Africa that mankind arose and it was the beginning of spirituality as we have come to know it in the western world.