African-American Boys Graduate From A Holistic Home School To The Ivy League
by Penny Powell

It was an incredibly exciting day for home-schooling mom, Paula Penn-Nabrit, when the news arrived that her twin sons, Charles and Damon, were accepted into Princeton University, and then when Amherst College accepted her youngest son, Evan, two years later.

"I jumped up and down and screamed in the living room until I was hoarse," writes Penn-Nabrit in her new book, Morning by Morning: How We Home-Schooled Our African-American Sons To The Ivy League. "C. Madison (her husband) wasn't at home to restrain me, so I -- as we say in the black community -- performed. I made Charles and Damon grovel, and admit that we had been right and that they had been wrong to doubt us."

Although the Nabrit boys grew to accept their life of home schooling, they had strong doubts about this journey their parents had mapped out for them when they were 9 and 11 years old. However, a series of racially-related incidences at traditional schools they had attended, including an expulsion from one of them, prompted Penn-Nabrit and C. Madison, both graduates of top colleges themselves, to home school. They refused to have their sons' self-esteem shattered.

Therefore, here was a family -- with ties to the historical fight for blacks to be given a fair education -- taking an alternative educational route. It had been C. Madison's uncle, Civil Rights Attorney James Nabrit, who argued Brown v. Board of Education with Thurgood Marshall before the U.S. Supreme Court. So, it's not surprising that family members strongly questioned Penn-Nabrit and C. Madison's decision to pull away from an educational system that had not come easily for blacks.

If numerous critics outside of the Nabrit household were not enough to deal with, three of Penn-Nabrit and C. Madison's biggest critics lived right under their roof. That, alone, would have made countless parents resort to sending their kids back to a traditional educational institution, yet, this couple didn't bend. They clung to their parental instincts and strong faith, believing that they were educating their boys the best way they could, and whatever confidence and insight Charles, Damon and Evan lacked, Penn-Nabrit and C. Madison simply substituted with theirs. And so the "experiment" as Penn-Nabrit refers to it in her book, went on -- straight through to Princeton and Amherst.

However, long before those higher-education acceptance letters began pouring in, critics had begun witnessing the success of this experiment. The Nabrit boys were intellectual, spiritual, physically active, and socialized. There was something attractive about them (apart from their obvious good looks -- take a look at the book's cover). Even those who were unaware about the home-schooling experiment detected something pleasantly extraordinary about these boys, too.

"I know at least five black families whose kids ended up working at COSI (a respected Ohio Science Center) because they were so surprised and inspired when they met Charles, Damon and Evan there," Penn-Nabrit says in Morning by Morning about the boys’ volunteer work experience at COSI. "I have had black teachers tell me what an amazing impact the boys had on their students' trips to COSI. Also, a volunteer leader, who attended with a group of students with severe disabilities, thanked me for the extraordinary sincerity, warmth, and consideration shown by the boys," says Penn-Nabrit.

Through the phenomenal success of the Nabrit's experiment, critics learned that home schooling has the potential to be equally, or more successful, than a traditional education -- broad socialization included! Read Morning by Morning and it’s hard to imagine any educational system being able to top the quality education that Charles, Damon and Evan received -- designed by their parents! For instance, the boys even experienced a Rites of Passage during their home-schooling journey.

"It was roughly a year-long process that focused on the significance of their passage from childhood into young adulthood," writes Penn-Nabrit. "Before developing our own ritual, we read a lot of books on African and African-American rites of passage and also attended several bar mitzvahs. Ultimately, we developed a ritual process that combined the history of the African diaspora, the role of Christianity, and the future of African-American men as the focal points," she continues. "We developed an extensive reading list for the boys, which included biblical texts, scientific journals, and African and African-American political writings. They read Proverbs and Isaiah and Romans along with works by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Stephen Biko, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, and Frantz Fanon." Penn-Nabrit goes on to explain how both discussion and essay writing were incorporated into this project and that the Rites of Passage concluded with a ritual ceremony at church where each boy had to present his final essay, What I Believe.

From the designing of a curriculum -- to the hiring of qualified African and or African-American tutors (graduate students) to teach subjects to the boys that the Nabrit parents chose not to teach -- to scouting out quality physical and cultural activities for the boys -- to looking for budget trips that would expand the boys' world to places such as Paris, Bangkok and Singapore -- to keeping the boys active in church and community service -- to their biggest ritual of all, graduation.....it is clear that these parents were committed to home schooling. Additionally, Morning by Morning shows parents how a quality at-home education can be achieved without the advantage of a hefty bank account. Yet, Penn-Nabrit doesn't advocate home schooling being a good fit for every family.



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