Like most parents, her father and I believed we had produced a daughter of not only uncommon beauty but we were convinced she possessed a rare and fine intelligence as well. As long as I can remember she possessed a burning desire to understand the why and how of everything of which would cross her world.
And unlike my first brush with the educational system I was determined to prepare my daughter for the experience. She would know her alphabet, how to read simple picture books in English, she would know how to write her full name. No one would be able to play her for the fool and tell her 'sex' was the correct pronunciation of 'six'. Nor would she ever stand up in class and count 'sex' and 'sexteen' so there would be no need for anyone to beat her for it and her hands would remain unmarked.
By the time, she entered public school for her first day of junior kindergarten; she knew her alphabet and had mastered printing it as well. She could recognize by sight approximately 50 words in English. She could write her first and last name, count to 100 and easily recognize the numbers 1-20. I thought she was well prepared, but in retrospect, neither of us was for the events which transpired.
Thirteen years later and I can still see her in my mind’s eye waving an envelope in her hand at me when I came to pick her up at her after school program. The first term report cards had been released. I remember asking her why she thought she did so well. "Because" she said, "I always know the answers to all the questions Miss asks. But Miss says I must learn to let everyone else to catch up with me so I am only allowed to raise my hand once a day.”
Her enthusiasm was infectious and she carried her hopes high. She begged me to open it before we had left the building because she could not wait to see all the little 'A's written on her report. In the yard I gave in and opened it. This represented one of the few times in my life when I actually wished for the earth to open up and sallow me whole. In all measurable areas of my daughter's scholastic abilities, her teacher judged her 'failing to develop'. From age appropriate language skills, numeracy, motor co-ordination/social skills, problem solving - in all areas and without exception she was 'failing to develop' and ‘not progressing towards promotion’. Public elementary schools were progressive – no more A’s or B’s. Lucky for me, the report card came with a manual to explain the use of the terms like – ‘meets expectations’, ‘exceeds expectations’, ‘progressing towards promotion’ and the dreaded ‘failing to develop’. It took me four or fives attempts to read the four page part report for me to take it all in.
At first, I sided with the teacher and demanded my daughter explain to me what kind of chaotic and nefarious conduct she was up to when we dropped her off at school each day. Initially, I bought whole-heartedly in the multi-cult ethos/rhetoric and put my faith that my society had moved beyond the politics of bigotry, and so, I accepted unquestionably her teacher's written statement of my daughter’s lack of scholastic achievements. The woman was the professional and I only a mother who loved her daughter more than my next breathe….what did I know? All I had was my own disastrous elementary school experience to go by in comparison.
My daughter stood before me with her head bowed and I watched the tears slowly slip down her flushed cheeks. I give no quarter to failure and refuse to accept such from any of my children, and to my deep and everlasting regret, my daughter learned the meaning of shame from my tongue. If I knew today what I know now, I would have held my tongue until I had taken the time to think and ponder, but then again, it was because of what came to past that I learned to grow wiser.
All who of us who knew the Last Amazon were floored by this report. None of us could understand how this could state of affairs could come to be. It was her father who planted both the seeds of doubt and hope in my mind. He refused to accept the judgment of the teacher and suspected something. What, he did not know. I tried to speak to the teacher but she brushed me off. Appointments were made, appointments were broken. I called the principal but he refused to discuss the situation until I meet officially with her teacher. Again, appointments were made, and then, appointments were broken. The Last Amazon was my first child and I was a novice dealing with teachers and schools.
By the end of January 1996, I transferred my daughter to a religious school closer to home. On her last day of school in the public system her teacher finally returned my call. She gave me a whole litany of excuses for her inability to find the time to meet with me and hoped I was not removing my daughter on her account. I murmured meaningless excuses of ‘oh, of course, never think of it’. By this time, I just could not work up the energy to bother to discuss much of anything with her. She asked if she could give me a piece of advice. I said, “Of course.” She told me, if my daughter was going to meet with success in a religious educational setting. I should take the time to explain to her that G-d was never black. I was startled so completely into silence by the novelty of this woman’s revelation that it took me a really long time to pull myself together and ask, “Oh, wasn’t he?” The woman slammed the phone done in my ear and I have never heard of her since.
At four years of age, my daughter did not understand all the attributes of G-d, but she knew he was one, and she knew she was made in his image and so she made him into an image she could relate to. I don’t have a problem with that and I do not care to understand or associate with those who do. I just wish they didn’t teach in any classroom.
Since that time she has had many teachers, few if any were black, some were outstanding and some not, but I would give anything to have her first memory of her first school erased from her experience. I often wonder where she would be today if I had left her in that school.
This weekend my daughter brought this Quote of the Day post to my attention. She was quite shocked because she knew the owner of the blog who posted it and had thought better of her. I didn't have the heart to tell her this wasn't even the first of its' kind but one of many.
If all black teachers, teaching all black culture were the magic pill to create all black geniuses, then wouldn't the degenerate black hole at Jane and Finch be a rocket science research complex by now?
This I ashamed to say, is what passes for witty and insightful commentary within the Canadian conservative blogging community, but what it really is - is the written expression of what is meant by the term ‘the soft bigotry of low expectations’ in action.
Why is it that the mere suggestion of a black focused school, taught primarily by black educators, attended pre-dominantly by black students and the pursuit of excellence in education considered mutually exclusive in 2007? Terms like apartheid and segregation are bandied about and willfully abused, and in fact, one prominent conservative blogger even went so far as to refer to the proposed alternative black focused school as Apartheid High. Go read the comments. It is like a free-for-all at a Sears White Sale.
Ask yourself; what would you call an educational institution which has produced 2 Rhodes Scholars, a Truman Scholar, a Marshall Scholar, 19 Fulbright Scholars, 10 Pickering Fellows, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and a US Supreme Court Justice? Wait! I know. A rather large number of Canadians would call it Apartheid U but I would call it Howard University and I would be proud to see my daughter graduate from such an institution.
The VRWC decoder ring is in the mail.
22 comments:
Welcome to the Nice Side of the Force. Your tea cozy is being couriered.
I'm watching that whole discussion on several of my favourite blood-pressure-elevating blogs, but I am so appalled by what I'm reading, and sometimes frightened, that I don't even feel like getting into the scrap.
There's a whole universe of literature out there that describes the impact on both child and adult learning in various environments. The proposed school is simply an intelligent attempt to create an environment that promotes learning by removing some common pedagogical and cultural barriers. Why on earth are people so freaked out or threatened by that - and what do they imagine the alternatives are?
I can't wait to take delivery of my tea cozy. Thanks. Nice to know I will have someone to talk to from time to time in my exile.
Of course it is possible for an all black school to excel if it is focussed on academic achievement rather than ethnic grievance. The are some excellent examples of such schools in Africa, the Islands and the U.S.
Personally, I'm in favour of everyone having school choice. I fully understand why people want to escape the clutches of the modern PC education bureaucracy.
If they were merely saying the schools suck, and we need school choice to produce better ones I think conservatives would endorse it completely.
But its creation is being cloaked in Afrocentric and blame-whitey rhetoric rather than academic excellence, and its boosters are the usual suspects of race hustlers and grievance mongers. So I think people are quite correct to have very low expectations of this initiative.
Kateland,
I would no more call Right Girl or her pals emblematic of "the Right" than I would call Robert McClelland or Ted Rall emblematic of "the Left".
It is a simple fact of life that every human heart harbours bigotry, whether religious, ethnic, national, philosophical, aesthetic, sexual, et cetera. It is not a condition prevalent or unique to any one portion of the political spectrum.
There is not a human mind alive today that can apprehend and synthesize the subjective contexts for every human behaviour. Every human alive is prejudiced by his or her own experiences and beliefs. There are no exceptions.
The only real difference is that some people work to reduce or ameliorate their individual prejudices, when they are made aware of them, and others see no such need. The story of Jonah is a particularly good example.
I would say that the "soft bigotry" of which you speak is being practiced by the grievance pimps who believe shielding black students from the ravages of exposure to "white education" is the solution to why their children fail. I have the same expectations of black students, as I do for white ones. They are the same expectations I have for their parent's and their teachers. I was always taught that race and color shouldn't matter -- that blacks were capable of and entitled to the same opportunities as whites. The ones who choose to shun or ruin their own opportunity out of laziness or a propensity to see racism around every corner, are the ones with lowered expectations.
My remark was flippant, but I take this issue quite seriously. Those people have systematically doomed their children to failure because they have chosen the blame and segregate route, over the tougher road of personal responsibility, tough-love and the fostering of family values. I find it infuriating that so many are willing to subject their children -- who are already struggling and suffering -- to a racist social experiment. And when it fails, we will all suffer for it.
I spent 2 years, living just south of Jane and Finch and it is a degenerate black hole. And if you think teaching more Kwanzaa classes and "social implications of the North American slave trade" is going to make that any better, then I am afraid you are a little naive. And aside from this asinine woman who clearly is a racist, there are bigots of all colors and all cultures. An Africentric school only trades white bigots for black ones. Hardly an atmosphere for fostering learning.
I'm sorry your daughter was unhappy with my comment. She should know I feel so passionately about it, because I want her and all of our children to have so much better than this ridiculous education system is offering. She deserves it as much as mine, regardless of her color. Don't you think?
WOW. Are you ever a piece of work. I guess this is the, 'I use blatant bigotry and hold up an entire minority group up to ridicule because I just care so darn much' defense. Your remarks were not 'flippant' but the upfront and outright promotion of racism. Edith Bunker you are not.
I am sure your little screed on my blog makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside but your willful ignorance on what constitutes afro-centric or black focused education coupled with your complete and utter disregard for black educational institutions only underscores your absolute and total ignorance.
And Kwanzaa??%#? I have spent the last 20 years living within the black community in Canada, the US, and I own a home in Jamaica. I have yet to meet a single black family who celebrated Kwanzaa. Obviously, your two years of living on the outer edges of a single black community qualifies you for absolutely nothing. I guess this is a modern twist on the old phrase 'some of my best friends are black'. Furthermore, are you trying to suggest there are no social/societal repercussions from the consequences of the North American slave trade worthy of historical study?
Black gang culture represents a tiny portion of the black community, and yet, to you, it is the only aspect of 'black' culture worthy of discussion. For all your rallying against the alleged "victim mentality" and/or sense of entitlement from the 'grievance mongers' in the black community you seem to think the struggle for equality ended sometime around the assassination of Martin Luther King. How you can read about my daughter's experience and think everything is hunky dory? Have you no shame?
Okay, I'm tossing in some dark, semisweet Italian chocolate with that tea cozy. Strong measures are clearly called for.
Don't let the ideologues drive you nuts. You know what's what, and you're right. Period. No joke.b
I shall have to visit here more often. I'm almost speechless.
I have a whole series of arguments against this experiment, from a progressive perspective, but I think I'll reflect a bit more before committing them to type. In the meantime--give your daughter a hug and don't tell her why.
Dr. Dawg, the daughter is quite alright – after all she is an Amazon, but spare a thought for all those other children who were taught under that woman’s hand unmolested. I think of them often. Although, I saved my daughter and by extension my sons from her influence, I left them behind and that really bothers me.
Oddly enough, the black focused school debate does not breakdown under left/right divide – you would think it (and I suspect the rw of the blogsphere wishes it were so) but it just doesn’t. While I would have expected more support from the left on this issue it simply isn’t there in an appreciable way. The debate is much more a white/black divide.
And if I read another person invoking the name of MLK as justification for not establishing a black focused school I will start banging my head off my desk. MLK was a graduate of Morehouse which remains to this day; a tier one rated university in the US, whose reputation for excellence is outstanding and it still is a “black” college. If MLK was entering university in this day and age - Morehouse would still be a simply outstanding choice providing he could make the cut.
The arguments invoked against the establishment of a black focused alternative school staffed primarily by black educators is that it would deliver a substandard education, that graduates of such a school would be unprepared for admittance to any institutes of post-secondary school learning, and the students would be unduly stigmatized by having graduated from such a school in the workplace as well as by institutes of post-secondary education. It would create hungry black power demons which will terrorize the larger white community because of their black-focused education. As well these children would be unable to successfully integrate into the overwhelmingly larger non-black society because they spent 8 hours of their 5 day school day in a black focused school. The underlying assumptions of all these arguments are based strictly on prejudice and ignorance.
And I forgot the kicker, if we give black parents a black focused school like we do for Aboriginals or Gays and Lesbians; we will then have to allow the establishment of Chinese, Greek, Arab or even White schools (which is what French Immersion schools look like in my neighborhood) but I really don’t have a problem with any of those kind of schools. The Ministry outlines the core curriculum and set the standards, so I am more than willing to let each of these kinds of schools impart information in whatever styles of teaching the school is comfortable focusing on.
I have deliberately avoid using “Afro-centric” because it’s the new pc word for black focused and it seems to confuse many outside of the black community by what is meant. It is not the study of Africa per say, but a style and a way of teaching information as well using a narrative that has a particular resonance and poignancy for the very diverse black community.
For example, I taught each of my children how to spell their names using a rhyming poem – a rap – which was individually tailored to their names as well as using a rap/rhyme method to teach my children the times table. I got idea from listening to my Jamaican neighbor’s children using it to learn the periodic tables for high school chemistry classes and it is a very ancient African way of imparting information on the memory – the marriage of music and words. Though I expect the application in a chemistry class has more Jamaican implication.
In music class, I wouldn’t teach modern contemporary music per say but the history of the Blues, Jazz, Reggae, Ska. I would teach them the role music played in warfare from African tribes to the fight for freedom from slavery and beyond. But I would also teach them that Africans and their North American descendants were not the only peoples to use music in such a fashion. And in this way I would introduce the relationship between music and the ancient Spartans or how music was incorporated in European warfare (both land and sea). I would also be giving them the necessary research skills so they could learn and then write how music was used as a tool of war during - name your conflict.
To paraphrase Bob Marley, I would teach them that before they can leave behind the shackles of slavery they need to emancipate their minds from mental slavery and none but ourselves - can free our minds.
Let me note that all of the reasons for not having such a school/curriculum that you report above are not my reasons--they are blind and bogus, and I'll say no more about them here.
My concern is of a different kind: it seems to me that such a school is a confession of social failure. If we can't overcome racialization, then we'll succumb to it and even reinforce it. That takes a bit of explaining.
I'm not one of those who claims to prefer that everyone simply be "colourblind," because that's just a strategy for erasing real power differences, structurally unequal opportunities and on-going discrimination of all kinds. It's like wishing them away--or, more likely, engaging in a strategic pretence.
I want one public school system and one society, but that doesn't mean that everyone has to look and behave alike. What it does mean is, quite simply, that we talk to each other. And in the longer term, it also means that we bang away at the barriers, assuming that we have first been honest enough to admit that there >are barriers.
An "Afrocentric" school (I don't mind the term) simply works within the barriers. It amounts to self-racializing, when we should be engaged in a struggle against racialization.
Now this will all sound lofty and academic--what about the kids right now who have few chances and no hope in the current system? Obviously that system (and I don't mean just education but the whole socioeconomic ball of wax) is in real need of repair. So, then: do we repair it or do we give in to it by acceding to its notions of "race" and obligingly categorize ourselves? Is there not something a little contradictory about teaching race-based self-esteem when "race" is a systemic means of lowering it?
Enough for now. I wish you could have informed us that the teacher in question had been led out of your kid's school in handcuffs--surely that cretin is not still there. My God. That would have been in the nineties, for crying out loud. That's something an HRC could righteously have addressed.
What a great post.
This was for me particularly eye opening:
I have deliberately avoid using “Afro-centric” because it’s the new pc word for black focused and it seems to confuse many outside of the black community by what is meant. It is not the study of Africa per say, but a style and a way of teaching information as well using a narrative that has a particular resonance and poignancy for the very diverse black community.
For example, I taught each of my children how to spell their names using a rhyming poem – a rap – which was individually tailored to their names as well as using a rap/rhyme method to teach my children the times table. I got idea from listening to my Jamaican neighbor’s children using it to learn the periodic tables for high school chemistry classes and it is a very ancient African way of imparting information on the memory – the marriage of music and words.
Dawg said:
"Now this will all sound lofty and academic...."
It certainly does, but it's clearer than what you wrote on your own site, which I can barely understand a word of.
Your problem, my dear Dawg, is that you seem to be saying, "First, we must radically reform society from top to bottom, abolishing all structures of privilege, then educational problems will pretty much resolve themselves."
Yes, no doubt. Come the Revolution, all social contradictions will be resolved. Just a hint here: it ain't coming.
Working on education before reforming the rest of society (disclosure: as you know, I oppose most of your society-wide reform proposals as either bad or useless, but never mind) is not an admission of defeat for progressives like yourself, it's realism. It's also a place you can find common ground with people you're philosophically out of sympathy with.
Speaking generally, we're talking about two models of schools: (A) common schools for all and (B) separate schools for subcultural groups. Plenty of people support option A, and oppose any move towards B. Practically no-one goes whole-hog for B (that is, no common schools, just schools for cultural groups), but a lot want a mixture of A and B. Me, I think as a matter of pluralism, we have no business imposing a single ideological vision (such as A or B) one way or another. Empirically, we may want to do some experimentation to see what happens.
I have doubts about the prospects of any "Afrocentric" school that doesn't take a hard line on gansta culture and discipline. As I've said elsewhere, the problem with educational reforms is that the people implementing them are often not good enough to attain their objectives. Kateland has had problems with bigoted idiots, but PC idiots will also be bad for her daughter, even if not as bad. The Post's report of a teacher whose "Afrocentric" math lesson involved figuring out how many trucks, planes etc. would be filled by the victims of the Rwandan Genocide had too much the ring of prophecy.
But, in the end, I'm glad a single, experimental school is being set up, and we'll see how it works.
intellectual pariah
Your problem, my dear Dawg, is that you seem to be saying, "First, we must radically reform society from top to bottom, abolishing all structures of privilege, then educational problems will pretty much resolve themselves."
Nice straw man, quotation marks and all.
I'm arguing, of course, nothing of the kind. I'm suggesting that we do need to look at how racialization is constructed/reconstructed, and the socioeconomic structures that perpetuate it.
But that's the long-term project. It's just that we need to keep it in mind. In the short term, my view is that basing an alternative school on a category ("race") that is itself oppressive, is a step backward, not a step forward. What about making the present public school system more accountable, flexible and, most importantly, useful? What about making every school an "alternative" school? Now, there's a concept. Doesn't even require armed struggle.
I thought my own piece was fairly lucid. I'd suggest giving it another go.
Great post :)
Good luck to the Last Amazon!
P.S. For some reason schools seem to have quite a few "teachers" like this. Not the majority, but every now and again you get this total a-hole. I try to look on the positive side: it builds up character and teaches the kid about "the real world" out there.
Still you don't want them to face what the Last Amazon did...
That's it.
Drop me an e-mail if you have a chance, Kateland. I may have invited you to join the Blogging Alliance of Non-Partisan Canadians before, but I repeat that now. You would be a boon to the blogroll: passionate articulate commentary that will _not_ be pegged.
On this issue, you just about changed my mind. I was concerned. The idea of such a school seemed to run counter to the principles of integration that had been the desire of the civil rights movement for so long. But now I'll just have to think about it a little longer.
I'm also a product of Toronto public education system. I myself had no problem with it, graduating with university-level skills thanks to the application of high quality grade 13 courses. I attended Harbord Collegiate, right downtown. The teachers there cared about their profession and their students, but I can't assume that my experience was typical.
I haven't given great thought to the "Afro-Centric" (or whatever) idea other than a generic "ooohhh, not a good idea" knee jerk reaction. Then I look at the Edmonton Public School system. We have arts-focused schools (some with heavy academic requirements, some not), computer-focused schools for the nerds, French-immersion, Ukrainian-immersion, German-immersion, we have an Islamic school (new - and I confess I'm not that comfy cozy with the idea), Jewish schools, a separate (Catholic) school board, a gazillion-and-one "charter" schools that ring one particular bell or another, and have to say WTF, it's working like a charm!
So MAYBE this isn't such a bad idea.
And I'm really sorry your daughter had such a crappy experience, and that you and your family had to deal with that crap, to paraphrase Dawg, in the 90S FOR GOD'S SAKE!
Anyway, you're not alone in exile my dear, and in the light of day, the outside-looking-in can be quite enlightening (and entertaining).
Dr Dawg, If I knew what I know now I still would have removed my daughter but I would have fought it at a school board level. At the time my husband and I were complete novices in these matters so we did what most black parents do – we disengaged and fled for higher ground.
What I do know is that the following year the principal of that school’s contract was not renewed and the school underwent some profound changes. I cannot speak for sure but I also suspect my daughter’s new principal had a hand in the other principal’s dismissal – he was a very good man who was in a righteous rage over what was done to her. Don’t forget the Royal Commission’s report was only released in 1995 and the public schools underwent some profound changes in implementing their ‘anti-racism’ policy after that report but still.
Dr. Dawg, while I can appreciate your wanting to create a one-size-fits-all solution for a “public” board – and I wish you much goodwill and success for all of that. But you should appreciate that not all students fit a one-size-fits-all solution for a variety of reasons. I don’t believe creating an educational oasis for a vulnerable “other” is an admission of failure but rather a show of strength and reflects a far greater tolerance and flexibility…well it would have if a people could keep their heads in the rhetoric..but bias is what bias does.
Naftali, after I wrote that, I realized Africans weren’t the only people to rely heavily on song for learning. In my grandfather’s old age he became a baal teshuva and I often learned along side him for a time. When he taught me tehillim it was done with song which in turn, I taught to my children.
Shlemazl, I often wonder if there should be term limits with teaching but it just may be that far too many teachers become teachers for the wrong reasons. It has become a job rather than a calling.
James, my daughter and older son have spent the last two years at a major downtown highschool and I have no complaints (other than my son’s new fondness for laziness) and overall I have been quite pleased – and pleasantly surprised.
Candace, the Alberta school system seems to be working quite well, and I would love for Ontario to take a leaf out of Alberta’s education book. What is often lost in the debate in Ontario is that a blackfocused private school is already in existence. Shiloh – out in Brampton, and by all accounts it is doing outstandingly well so the public board could have a local homegrown model to follow…although Shiloh is also a “religious” school they have had quite a bit of success with even some very difficult and initially hostile students.
Dr. Dawg, while I can appreciate your wanting to create a one-size-fits-all solution for a “public” board – and I wish you much goodwill and success for all of that. But you should appreciate that not all students fit a one-size-fits-all solution for a variety of reasons.
The last thing I want is a "one-size -fits-all" solution. My kid went to an alternative school--but it was within the public system, and was not based upon race. There is no theoretical reason why a school system can't be flexible enough to accommodate many different pedagogical approaches and cultural backgrounds.
I don't blame the parents--this appears to be their last hope. But it's too bad that possibilities have narrowed to this.
Perhaps McGuinty, with his "public-except-for-Catholic" Achilles heel, should be offering some positive solutions rather than wagging his finger. I'm trying to do a bit better than that here--maybe not successfully.
Sorry, Dawg, I wasn't trying to straw-man you. I'm sincerely at a loss to understand what exactly you're trying to say. I've no doubt it makes sense to you! However, I'm also aware of the castles-in-the-air effect of excessive theorization.
Back to my "straw man":
"Now this will all sound lofty and academic--what about the kids right now who have few chances and no hope in the current system? Obviously that system (and I don't mean just education but the whole socioeconomic ball of wax) is in real need of repair. So, then: do we repair it or do we give in to it by acceding to its notions of 'race' and obligingly categorize ourselves? [...]"
I can only read this as saying we ought to reform the whole socio-economic system rather than engage in piecemeal reform (like experimenting with Afro- or other-centric schools). That's big project, Dawg, and we (or you and your friends) have precious little power to effect the sorts of changes you advocate. (You and I would probably disagree on how much and what kind of change is desirable, but that's another issue.)
You're not against having special-focus focus, as they have in Vancouver (my kids have been in alternative a French-immersion here in Victoria), it's just the racial aspect that bothers you. Who wouldn't be? And yet, what was the problem with the old "separate but equal" U.S. schools? That they were separate? That they were extraordinarily UNEQUAL in terms of funding and resources? Or that the separateness was coerced? I'd say mostly points 2 and 3; I'm not sure about point 1. I don't think Howard University is blot on the U.S. system of higher education.
If the word "race" gives you the creeps, think "culture" (or "cultures", since there's no singular black culture). What's wrong with a culturally focussed school?
Who's to say that having black-focussed schools is ipso facto retrograde? If they can get at-risk black youth into college or university or steady, decent work, I think it could be part of the social repair you're looking for, not a diversion from it.
That said, there are plenty of pitfalls, as many right-wing commentators are only too happy to point out.
i.p.
IP:
I can only read this as saying we ought to reform the whole socio-economic system rather than engage in piecemeal reform (like experimenting with Afro- or other-centric schools).
Let's get the timeline straight. I am simply saying that the piecemeal reform should have a direction. There ought to be a strategy. There is little that is strategic here, at least in the medium and long-term sense. Establishing institutions based upon an invidious concept like "race" doesn't amount to "piece-meal reform." It's not reform at all. Better to work for alternative schooling that can address the lacunae in the public school system without focussing on "race."
If the energy expended on this project had been used instead to create an alternative "child-centred" school (like the one my own kid was in), I'd be all for it.
What's wrong with a culturally focussed school?
Nothing at all, if you want a society made up of culturally gated communities.
Andrew White, if I were to be flippant, I would ask you what you would call French Immersion but somehow I don't think anything less than a full back to Africa movement for all blacks would satisfy what ails you.
Wonder Bread, Are you trying to suggest that French Immersion are not eurocentric
school?
Don't be a moron, if I wasn't a believer in the free
association of any peoples why would I marry a Chinese Jamaican?
Go troll Stromfront where you are sure to be welcomed 'cause you sure as aren't welcome here.
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