Good Home Training

It was a phrase I used to hear from my parents or grandparents, when someone in our community (or family... you know THOSE cousins, lol) did things with a little less finesse than expected: they just didn't get any good home training.

Whether that's classist/elitist or not, remains to be discussed and pondered on. But, I think many of us grew up with a sense of right and wrong; the proper way to get things done, and the way that makes people not want to work with you. And a lot of kids coming up don't seem to get (or remember) it.

Well, for the new generation that may not have gotten the same "home training" comes a book I recently discovered.

The New Basic Black: Home Training for Modern Times. It's written by Karen Grigsby Bates and Karen Elyse Hudson. It's described as a guide for gracious living that covers the essentials of black American traditions with updates for the new millennium.

An interview with the authors is here on this NPR interview. A profile of one of the authors.

I recently got a copy and am loving it. Reminds me a lot of what my parents and grandparents taught me... without officially teaching me, you know?

Definitely a must-buy for many of our libraries and personal collections.
fs