Cynics Unlimited

The issue of Black-focused schools took Toronto by storm just under a year ago and culminated in the January 2008 decision to establish Afrocentric educational institutions in this city. The first such school is set to open its doors in the fall of 2009. Nonetheless, the controversy surrounding the subject is far from over. Proponents claim that by employing a preponderance of Black teachers and emphasizing African (and Afro-Caribbean) history and culture in the classroom, these schools will raise Black students’ marks and lower the high dropout rate among them, which currently stands at a troubling 40%. Opponents on the other hand have likened Black-focused schools to the racially segregated educational systems of pre-Martin Luther King Alabama or South Africa before the abolition of apartheid (of interest, one contributor to the White Supremacist site Stormfront praised the creation of Afrocentric schools on the grounds that if Blacks could have a school all to themselves, so could Whites). In reality Black-focused schools in Toronto , Canada cannot be equated to the “separate but equal” schools of the Old South or the separate but openly unequal ones of South Africa under apartheid. No Afro-Canadian student would be forced to go to a Black-focused school, and Whites would be welcome to attend as well – though it’s hard to imagine too many White or other non-Black parents enrolling their children in such a school. To my mind, however, the most important question about Black-focused educational institutions is not whether they amount to segregation but whether they will achieve their stated goal of improving Black students’ academic performance and helping them stay in school.

Of course it’s too early to tell whether or not Black-focused schools will manage to meet the above-mentioned objectives. On the positive side, if the (presumably Black) teachers there are truly committed to helping the Black community and encouraging its youths to get an education, perhaps these schools really can make a difference in the lives of their students. Hopefully they will do so by focusing on the “basics:” English, math, sciences, French and so on. I am not saying that teaching students about African history is wrong – as I stated in a previous essay, I believe all children, including Whites, should learn more about non-European history than they presently do at our public schools – but I feel that Black students should first and foremost acquire the skills they will need to further their education and succeed in the so-called real world.

I admit to being somewhat sceptical of the argument that being taught by teachers of their own race will boost Black students’ marks because they (the students) will identify more with them than they would with a White educator. There does not seem to any overrepresentation of teachers of East Asian descent in Toronto ’s educational system, yet in terms of grades, high school graduation rates and post-secondary enrolment East Asians appear to surpass even Whites. On the other hand, for an Afro-Canadian child born to a teenage mother on public assistance in a neighbourhood plagued by drugs and violence, a teacher of his or her own race may be the only positive Black role model he or she ever sees on a regular basis. Such a child may thus be motivated to emulate the educator in question and remain in school.

Now for the bad news: I worry that students at an Afrocentric school may fall in the grips of what has been called the “Black peer group.” According to psychologist Judith Rich Harris, many Black kids neglect their studies because they are taunted by their peers about “acting White” if they apply themselves in school. She cites a study done in Germany involving children fathered by American soldiers during World War II. Half of the fathers were Black, the other White. Contrary to the notion that Blacks were genetically inferior to Whites, the mulatto children showed no difference on intelligence tests from their unmixed White peers. Harris speculates that the former children lacked a Black peer group because there were never enough of them at any one single school, so they didn’t feel pressure not to “act White.” I have to say that my nephews, who are biracial (their father is Black; my sister is White), are A students – and I can’t rule out the possibility that this is because they identify more with their White than their Black side. So perhaps in a Black-focused school Afro-Canadian children and teens would be more likely to experience this pressure than they would at a school with a more racially mixed student population.

Again, it is impossible to predict what the outcome of Black-focused schools will be. I personally suspect that in and of themselves they will not have much effect either way on Black students’ academic achievement. The outcome also depends on the type of students who enrol in them. If they consist of children who are sent there as a “last resort” because they are failing in the mainstream system, obviously the schools’ rankings will reflect this through lower grades. On the other hand, a student population made up of children of academically oriented parents who feel a Black-focused education is the best way for their sons and daughters to succeed will enhance the school’s performance. Hopefully a study on the matter in the next ten years or so will help answer this question.