Admitting it is failing some students of colour, the Toronto public board could open a black-focused school as early as next fall.
Two community meetings are planned in the next week to discuss the idea of an "African-centred alternative school" from junior kindergarten to Grade 8 that would have more black teachers, black mentors, more focus on students' heritage and more parent involvement.
A staff report is expected later this month with details on how the concept would work. If trustees approve such a school, it would be a first for Ontario and possibly Canada, although there are some in the United States in cities such as Detroit, Washington and Kansas City.
"Whatever is being used in the system at this moment is failing a lot of students – and more specifically a lot of black students," said Donna Harrow, a community worker who is behind the push for such a school, along with Etobicoke parent Angela Wilson.
I was automatically against the idea in a 'knee-jerk kind of way' years ago but now I am not so sure. One of the things I have learned watching my children and their peers navigator the school system, is how wide the actual cultural disconnect is. I will add this caveat - if the school is predominantly Afro-centric as opposed to more Caribbean-centric, I am not so sure it will be a great success.
Just to throw out one example, I was always amazed at the number of elementary school teachers who were unable to effectively manage young Caribbean boys in the classroom. It wasn’t really a divide along colour line but one could be forgiven in thinking it was. In essence, the solitude was all about culture.
I know from living in Jamaica that Jamaican parents might complain about the stubborn and feisty qualities in their sons, but it is also done so with great pride. I have witnessed many a competition between parents for whose son’s were the feistiest. Naturally my boys beat all comers but easy compliance, passivity, and automatic obedience are often perceived as ‘weak’ or ‘undesirable’ character traits in one’s son.
If you have a decent understanding of the cultural norms of your students, you are in the best position in knowing how to tailor your teaching behaviour to effectively channel their behaviour in the classroom. It was really quite informative watching how settled the so-called ‘behavioral’ boys of Caribbean extraction became when the teachers were more reflective of their grandmother’s age.
But a far more interesting point in this debate is looking at who is objecting to the very idea of it a blackcentric school. I will offer a hint – it is not the black community - how’s that for an act of irony?
And if one believes black-centric education cannot possibly provide any viable alternative - eyeball this article about the Shiloh Christian Institute in Brampton.
5 comments:
I'm afraid this approach runs counter to the current of thought presently now dominating discussion on cultural issues in conservative circles. The current view appears to be that "we" have a "Judeo-Christian". "European-derived" culture (read "white"), and that anyone lucky enough to live in Canada should shed any residue of their own tradition as quickly as possible and adopt ours. I believe the argument at this points stops just short of bleaching and corrective nose/eye surgery, but we may yet see that.
Oh, and, of course, to suggest that multiculuralism is a better approach is naive beyond belief, and clear evidence that the proponent is weak race-traitor who hates Canada and themself.
Did I miss anything?
Maybe not, but I am one of those "conservative circles" or maybe its "conservative squares". Oh dear, have I really suggested something multi-cult? And I here I thought I was just being practical...anyhoo, I did ask my oldest if he would want to attend an all black school and his response was 'Whatever for? And besides, whatever would he do if he needed to release his inner white russian?'
Multicult IS practical. It's Canada's acknowledgment that rivers, mountains orthe distance a horse can travel in a week aren't useful dividers anymore, and that for the first time in the history of the planet odds are that a sizeable percentage of the folks raised in one locale with one culture will be experiencing, and possibly living in, several others over the course of a lifetime.
Reactionaries believe that a moment in cultural time can be frozen and preserved forever in some sort of legislative amber. I think that's nonsense. That which has survival value in a culture will survive and promulgate - that which doesn't dies.
Inuit use rifles, Catholics now eat meat on Friday, and even we Irish are cutting down on our drinking.
Reactionaries believe that a moment in cultural time can be frozen and preserved forever in some sort of legislative amber. I think that's nonsense. That which has survival value in a culture will survive and promulgate - that which doesn't dies.
Sure, who needs to be able to speak in dead languages now when everything important is in English, Hindi or Mandarin? Presumably you're okay with the Powhatan, Pamlico and Cheraw languages getting flushed because their culture had no survival value? Man, am I ever glad various native elders, monks and ancient scholars didn't buy that line.
Sometimes these things have intrinsic value. Without any survival benefits whatsoever. They simply connect us to parts of our own history we may not have known. Or people and places long gone. That's the argument for multiculturalism -- intrinsic worth. What you have is an argument for nihilism.
I don't see your point, I'm afraid: and I certainly don't see mine as an argument for nihilism.
Ojibway, Inuktitut, Cree are living languages because they continue to serve living communities, and do what all languages do...enable communication between members of a culture, encapsulate a view of the world in both their content and their structure, assert one's identify as a member of X community, and so on. Many of the smaller languages will NOT survive...not as a matter of policy, or because they are inferior as instruments for communication, but because there is not longer a community big enough to sustain them.
The loss of a language is like the death of elders or a library burning down. So I'm not sure how you're reading my statement above.
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