Independence to be Independent: The journey from “pit” schools to home schools to HBCUs

The birth of America’s public school system has a great deal to do with Black people's activism during enslavement and Reconstruction and their work via the Freedmen's Bureau and the resulting HBCUs. As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our country’s independence, College of DuPage English professor Dr. Cheryl Boyle will explore ideas of citizenship, freedom, activism, persistence, and solidarity against a culture that did not see citizenship or personhood as including Black people and freedom that came from Black home schooling.

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Presenter Bio:

In Cheryl's "first life"—as she puts it—she served for fifteen years as a registered professional nurse in various clinical settings ranging from critical care, hemodialysis, to psychiatric nursing, corporate nursing, nursing management, and education. Because of her love for teaching and learning, she went back to school to bring about a career change towards a humanities-based career obtaining her B.A. In Music with a "minor" in English Language and Literature, a(n) M.A. in Literature, and a doctorate degree (Ed.D.) in Educational Leadership for Teaching and Learning. Her dissertation work, which explored specific topics in homeschooling and home education, focuses on a striking activism sensibility that seems uniquely to describe the most commonly expressed foundations as to why many Black families are choosing to homeschool.

She is an adjunct professor of English and teaches Composition at College of DuPage (COD) and has taught "Introduction to First-Year Writing" at Aurora University. She has been an adjunct faculty instructor in the Continuing Education Department at COD for 'lifelong learning'. Cheryl is an instructor of flute at Fox River Academy of Music in Oswego, and plays classical guitar, piano, and drums as well as sings. She is a homeschooling consultant and a 'veteran homeschooling mom' of sixteen years.

Cheryl lives with her husband, Tom, on a small agricultural lot with her adult daughter, Claire, ten dogs and thirteen cats. She has a thirty-two-year-old son, Colom, who lives nearby.  If her interests, both academic and cultural, could be summed up in two words, those words would be 'interdisciplinarity' and 'freedom'. She farms, sews, knits, cooks, has been vegan going on for some twelve years now, performs musically at times, and loves to read and write. She wishes there were more hours in the day to do the beautiful work of 'reading the world'.