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.
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.
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.
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.
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??!!?!
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.
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).
More tension in school already, now its definently ON
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 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.