The seemingly unthinkable has been approved in the center of the universe:
Tuesday night, the Toronto District School Board said yes to so-called Black-focused schools.
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Tuesday’s vote actually capped months of heated back-and-forth involving parents, students, teachers and trustees, the end result of which was the board throwing its support behind “four innovative strategies for improving the success of Black students.”
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The approved strategies include:
- Establishing a Program Area Review Team to recommend the program and operational model for an Africentric Alternative School opening in September 2009;
- Establishing a pilot program in three existing schools integrating the histories, cultures, experiences and contributions of people of African descent and other racialized groups into curriculum, teaching practices and school environment;
- Establishing a Staff Development, Research and Innovation Centre in collaboration with post-secondary institutions and community agencies to assess best practices for improving the success of marginalized and vulnerable students; and
- Developing an action plan for addressing underachievement for all marginalized and vulnerable students.
Talking Points:
- Poor black performance in school is a consequence of poor black performance in life. Canada is largely to blame, since the nation decided in the 1970’s to limit the number of Caribbean students (read: people with the facilities to deal with discimination) in favour of cheap labour. Some of the cheap labour who arrived were considered trash even back in the Caribbean (as upper class Caribbeans will attest – in private) and there is little cultural influence compelling them to change their violent/non-academic ways here. Imagine Saudi Arabia emptying the trailer parks of Canada for cheap labour in the oil fields, only to complain later about their unwillingness to adapt to the humility of Islam. “What do you expect?” would be our likely response. Based on this pattern, Portuguese and Latino schools can’t be far away.
- Anyone who saw the board meeting on TV no doubt noticed the proponents were utterly classless during the proceeding. On more than one occasion the chair requested that there be NO APPLAUSE OR HECKLING after board members speak. The parents ignored requests for civility, bursting out in spasms of applause or hissing after every monologue like they were at a methodist church. They also rudely accosted a black trustee after the vote for daring to oppose the proposal. Is it any wonder so many children in the inner city have disciplinary problems? Look at their role models!
- Africentric schools are going be reform schools for the simple fact that they cannot afford to have the same dropout rate as other high schools without being declared failures. Since the proponents themselves are targeting kids that have dropped out of school, the curriculum will have to be dumbed down so the homies can keep up. Expect few A and B students at these schools, as no black student with serious post-secondary aspirations wants to submit an academic record showing graduation from “the ghetto school”.
- Where were the Africans during the Africentric debates? Barely a Somali or Ethiopian in sight.
- The most entertaining part of the blog dialog (diablog?) was watching certain conservative websites invoke the ghost of Martin Luther King to oppose the “segregation” of Africentric schools. Virtually any other discourse they engage in involving blacks inevitably leads to discussions over black intellectual inferiority, ridicule of black culture or poorly-veiled fears of miscegenation. Wasn’t white flight from Toronto about escaping darkie? (and slanty and dotty, and..) Of course supporting this school would amount to supporting the transfer of government funds to initiatives favoured by rival liberals/socialists – hence the opposition.
- Sandy (a dissenting conservative who cannot in any way be classed with those described in #5) has her work cut out for her. I wish her all the best and hope that one day such schools will no longer appeal to so many people. We are one society, whether we like it or not.
I suppose all I can say is that we should be optimistic and give Black-focused schools a try. On the other hand, I’m sceptical as to whether they can really raise Black children’s marks. Let us hope that besides lessons in African culture they will also include things like back to basics in core classes like England, math, science, etcetera. That is the best way of helping failing students, in my view.
On point one – exactly. If the students still fail it will be due to ‘lack of funding’, not the parents.
In addition, of course it’s segregation! School is where one meets the people who in the future will be contacts for jobs and other opportunities – all that segregated schools will do is further ‘ghetto-ization’.
The other problem is that once special entitlements are handed out to one group of people, others find ways get special treatment too. In no time there WILL be muslim schools – and taxpayers footing the bill for their institutionalized misogyny.
Black-focused schools? Lets not stop there. Pershaps ‘Black-focused’ shopping malls, banks and grocery stores should be integrated back into society. Sounds rediculous right?! The truth of the matter is students who are not doing well in the already existant education system has nothing to do with how much they know/don’t know about their culture. Simply put – these students are not trying hard enough and their parents are to blame for this! We as a society need to continue to teach our children to WORK harder even when all the odds are against them. Instead of creating new systems so minorities ‘feel comfortable’ lets work together to change the already existant systems. One more question to think about: Did Rosa Parks create a ‘blacks-only’ bus system, or did she fight against the one that already existed? Honestly my fellow African Americans – we’ve come too far to turn back now!
Why hasn’t an africentric curriculum been integrated into the current curriculum being taught at Toronto high schools? Why doesn’t the board recruit more black teachers? These seem like logical solutions. This would address all the issues since the curriculum has a eurocentric focus and teachers do not represent the multicultural mix of students. The reason why this is not happening? The white-majority school board does not value black life! It’s that simple. An africentric school is just something to keep people quiet for a while. It’s a setup to fail.
This is what it’s come to? Frustration from what many black parents and teachers see as a eurocentric, white-dominated school system (both the curriculum and staff)- this has led us to approving a hastily thought-out plan for black focused schools. Why hasn’t an africentric curriculum been integrated into the current curriculum at Toronto high schools? Why doesn’t the board recruit more black teachers? These seem like logical solutions. The reason why this is not happening? The white-majority school board does not embrace change. It’s that simple. To keep the “loud” people quiet for a while, the board makes these recommendations. Some within the board must have realized the whole initiative might not get off the ground. There’s so much divisiveness in the black community about the issue, it’s inevitable? There will be infighting about every aspect of the school – the location, staff, curriculum, etc. It’s a setup to fail.
The genuine motives behind a Black-focused school were a good idea until all the hoopla. Many from the black community used the issue and the forums to vent and express anger over other issues. It’s sad. Blacks yelling at other blacks over this. Once the school doesn’t perform as planned, black parents will blame it on funding. And the Board will say, “Sorry, we tried”. The problems will not go away.
The board has no choice but to fix the current system. It is an alternative school and nothing more. According to the school census taken in 2006 about 12% of high schoolers are black and nearly 15% of elementary school kids. With over 330000 black people in the GTA no one expected all black kids to attend this school.
I think that in the end this alternative school is a good alternative to the streets and can help some kids focus and do something productive.
The system as a whole needs to be fixed because there is no room for the majority of black students. I hate hearing stupid statements people make about all black parents…..anyone who watched the meeting last night knows that blacks are for and against this for varying reasons. Like any other parents, some black parents do a great job….some do bad….most are average…..and yet the automatic assumption is the drop out rate is due to bad parenting. Is that the case in the rest of Ontario…majority white….where the drop out rate is 23%?
Anyways….I cannot agree with a number of points in this article that come from a position that had it in for those promoting this initiative from the get go. I respect the author’s right to those opinions….but would like to see a similar reaction next time a group of people speaks passionately about something they want at a council meeting or protest loudly on anything…. and are politically on the same side as the person calling them out.
As for calling it a “reform school”….I dont care about the name so long as it guides the few hundred students within its walls towards graduation. The other thousands upon thousands of black students will put up with the regular system in the mean time until it is fixed…..which to me is the ultimate goal so that an alternative school is no longer necessary.
(note that my comments are in general….not aimed at a comment poster)
As for segregation…..many screaming that out live in areas of the GTA that are exclusively white….by no accident. White flight, once thought to be “American” has been happening here alot. Many groups live in exclusive neighbourhoods with people like themself. Canadians are segregated and becomming more so…..so what the hell are people whinning about when one damn alternative school serving a fragment of a community is set up when they move to areas so their kids are surrounded by their own???
And before another person opens their mouth about setting a bad trend….the native school was the FIRST race/ethnic based school in Toronto and as soon as it came into being, all groups had grounds to ask for thier own schools….so dont jump up and down now that black people have done it…..it existed already.
So…segregation existed in TDSB….and among Canadians wanting to live amongst their own….time to step down off the high horses, no??!!?!
Anon:
Segregation is a forced separation by race or some other attribute. You can’t opt out of it. Conversely, these black schools aren’t being forced onto anyone and by default black students aren’t compelled to attend them. The 3 proposed schools couldn’t even hold 10% of the black student population so the fear-mongering about a return to a pre-MLK social order is overblown.
B:
If the parents don’t have to follow the board’s rules then why should taxpayers pay extra money to make sure their children do? “Anger” and “Passion” aren’t a free pass to act a fool – no matter which group is doing it. If environmentalists or angry taxi drivers had behaved that way they would have been tossed out of the venue, period (the latter was tossed out of a city hall meeting for voicing their disapproval out of turn). Respect is always a 2-way street.
Edondada:
I’m inclined to agree with your first comment, but you are inadvertently making the case for private school. But black people need to shed this idea that nothing should be attempted without full funding from “Big Daddy Government”. Sometimes you have to take risks and fund things yourself, instead of playing the pity card to have everything done for you. There is plenty of discretionary/material spending throughout any Toronto ethnic community that could be easily redirected to the setup of a medium sized private school. All that would need funding is the housing and the teachers. The latter could be chosen directly by the funding community. The curriculum already exists, thanks to several black-focused schools south of Toronto. Moreoever, a private black-focused school already exists and, like its more numerous Muslim and Jewish counterparts, has escaped the “segregation” hysteria. If you really want control then you’ve got to open your wallet and make it work. Big Daddy Government looks out for Big Daddy Government.
Cynapse:
I agree with you. Black people should stop using the pity card and stop asking for things (did you see the movie “The Departed”?…the opening monologue sums it up).
I thought I was the only black person who agreed with that line. I feel so very lucky to have decended from blacks who have that attitude – too bad there isn’t an easy way to impart the lesson to the rest of the group.
This is absolutley a very BAD, BAD, BAD decision. The poor performance of black children in Toronto schools is not that the Toronto school system has failed them but ratehr that they (black students) have failed to apply themselves. Being black myself, there is too much excuses that our race uses to justify our own faults and shortcomings. Having a black focused school is nothing but a farce to weed out the poor performing black students from bringing the academic performance of public schools down. I am all for the advancement of blacks and minorities in general, but people need to open thier eyes and realize that a black focused school is not the answer to: (1) poor academic performance by black males, (2) teen pregnancy in the black community, (3) gang-violence caused by black males, (4) the rise of HIV/AIDS in the black community, and (5) the loss of dignity and self-respect for the black male and female. I can go on and on, but, I feel that it is important to stress an important point accross. The families and studnets who want “black focused” schools need to realize that the biggest problem is the breakdown and dysfunctionalism in the black household. Not that our “school system” has failed our black children. The failures are the black parents and the black students. The Chinese, Indian, and other minority chilren seem to be advancing well in all aspects of society. BOTTOM LINE: “Its only gonna get worse!”
HUGE MISTAKE!!!!! wha di bloodclot is Toronto thinking?
More tension in school already, now its definently ON
i am african and i live in this godforsaken dump that is toronto!
as mother to three *black* kids i have a right to want them to be educated by their fellow *blacks*
you *whites* are racist bastards anyways! we all know this!
remember how you violated the spirits and bodies of native indian kids?
huh?
remember that? is is it just an inconvenient truth?
i feel like bursting out into laughter whenever i hear white people ,”why don’t the blacks want to go to school with us.”
isn’t it obvious?
BECAUSE YOU SUCK!
…and it’ll be my pleasure to ‘go back to africa’
after you take your skank asses back to ’scandanavia’
bastards!
LOL!
I wonder what sort of African history will be taught to children in these shcools. I wonder if the teachers will tell the children that Africa was a great empire until the evil white man came to steal Africans and take them into slavery. You see there are claims by some blacks that they invented mathematics,sciences,the wheel,space travel,……I know these claims sound ridiculous..but I would not be surprised to see revisionist History being taught as gospel truth. Yet the truth about Africa before the white man came during their exploration age of europe, is tribal warfare,one tribe decimating anotherand keeping slaves to sell to the arabs. Yes folks the Arabs were the first to trade with these tribes for slaves! Black afrcans were selling other blacks as slaves to the arabs the romans,and the greeks as well as the egyptians, when the white man began exploring the African coasts the tribes on the coasts began to tradero slaves to the europeans for cloth, knives,steel cooking utensisls etc,! And yet there have been no.not one recorded, slave raiding expedition mounted by white traders to take africans by force into slavery! Yes it was blacks selling blacks into slavery,the white man did not have to raid the african coast, the afrcans themselves were selling blacks! You do know other struggling schools in the city will be gutted financially to support this madness. Other students in other schools will be punished financially to ensure the success of this afrocentric insult to educators in Canada. THIS ENTIRE TRAVESTY HAS BEEN A CLEAR CASE OF USING RACISM TO HIDE BEHIND(not one black at the meeting spoke up about the unwillingness of the 40% dropout or expelled students to learn anything in school, the fact that these thugs are running the school through fear intimidation and sexual assaults)AND A WEAPON TO BEAT THE REST OF US OVER THE HEAD WITH(Donna Harrow,and her freind used the death of Jordan Manners to beat the schoolboard into submission.(oh by the way Jordan Manners was a little drug dealing thug,his homeroom teacher was going to call manners mother again to talk to her about her”angel” how he always had stacks of money,and she claimed that was birthday money! see the blog where his teacher tells us that jordan was already in the thug life,but was any of this mebntioned? nosirreee! No they made the little thug a martyr,and our spineless media went along!) I am so sick of the endless bleating by the black community that it is the white societies fault. Hey how about the black community taking responsibility for your own thugs your own Baby Momma plague,how about you stop ssheltering these thugs or..is…it..the fact that having all that extra blood money keeps you happy.
Hells Bells:
I don’t know where you learned your history, but there were several sufficient and highly organized civilizations/empires in Afica. I already wrote about Nubia. More could be written about Songhai, Ancient Ghana, Great Zimbabwe and the civilizations of the Lemba.
If you think thousands of years of black history can be condensed into your unpleasant dealings with a few poorly-raised thugs, then you’re no greater authority than the activists you disdain.
i dont want to go to a black focused school because i will fell left out and a minority in the system so no no no.no thanks but no thanks