Teach Your Children Well
It's a day late and a dollar short, but as promised here's a little rage on the subject of afrocentric schooling in Toronto. It's an important issues to me, so no cut-tabs.
Before I get into it, I should admit that at best I'm ambivalent about the idea. In theory I support the idea of schools with a specific cultural/religious focus. Drama King attended Hebrew school for eight years to no apparent detriment. However, I believe that such schools (including Catholic schools) should be privately funded. A privately-run afrocentric school would be financially inaccessible to many of the families who seem to support it, so big catch-22 there.
My other concern is that I haven't heard many details of what "afrocentric" would mean. I've read some vague rhetoric about emphasis on black role models, but how will that manifest in terms of actual curriculum. Cultural focus is great, but there is massive diversity amongst what many people categorically define as "the black community". We're talking about people who's roots stem from dozens of countries spanning the globe. Condensing that into a servicable, teachable program is a significant challenge (which is not to say it shouldn't be attempted).
My largest concern however is that this is nothing but political optics. That the priority isn't servicing these kids, but rather giving the appearance that something is being done. I fear that in the meantime, that the curriculum will be sub-par and the students will be further marginalized rather than given real opportunities.
And that's not even my rant. Read on...
The issue was the subject of a local CBC call in show last week. Many, many people called in expressing their displeasure with the decision to implement this school. The majority identified themselves as white. I assumed based largely on their vocabulary and anecdotes that they were "middle-class" (for lack of a better term). Overwhelmingly the criticism was that we were teaching our kids segregation, rather than tolerance. These people wanted a multi-cultural environment for their children, one where they could learn that we are all equal.
Multiculturalism. Tolerance. Acceptance. Plurality. All very noble concepts as far as I'm concerned. However, I felt an overwhelming urge to ask these people what exactly they had done up until now to support those concepts. For decades groups have been decrying the eurocentric, patriarchal, heterosexist bias of the school system. And what have people done? Not much as far as I can tell.
Canada's history is marred by just as much prejudice as any other former European colony. Our institutions were founded on principals that at best sought to assimilate non-whites males and at worst tried to eliminate them altogether. And though our current the social climate in lauds diversity, true multiculturalism and acceptance isn't simply going to happen by throwing a bunch of people from different backgrounds together and saying "get along".
For years and years and years, ethnic minorities having been telling us that the public school system doesn't acknowledge their experiences. For years and years and years, teachers have been begging for more community support, both financially and emotionally. And by and large, the more affluent among us have ignored it. If people think that because their child sits in class with some non-white kids that all is harmony and light, think again. Those kids, the one's that make you feel so good and politically correct -- those kids are struggling and too often failing. I don't know that this afrocentric school will help them, but if the mainstream system isn't serving it's students, I understand why parents are willing to try something else.
Obviously, I can't speak about any individual person's efforts, but we of the middle-class represent a pretty significant political/social demographic. If we want a true multicultural society, that takes work. It means providing teachers and auxilliary staff with the resources to serve their students. It means advocating on behalf of the students who's voices aren't being heard. It means listening when members of our community tell us they're being left out. And it think it means letting our egos get a little bruised. Racism/prejudice are pretty damning concepts and yet we've all been party to it. And maybe we need to accept that criticism sometimes, knowing that we've done our best but also understanding that perhaps we can do better in the future.
I'm definitely interested in other people's thoughts (assuming you slogged your way through).
Before I get into it, I should admit that at best I'm ambivalent about the idea. In theory I support the idea of schools with a specific cultural/religious focus. Drama King attended Hebrew school for eight years to no apparent detriment. However, I believe that such schools (including Catholic schools) should be privately funded. A privately-run afrocentric school would be financially inaccessible to many of the families who seem to support it, so big catch-22 there.
My other concern is that I haven't heard many details of what "afrocentric" would mean. I've read some vague rhetoric about emphasis on black role models, but how will that manifest in terms of actual curriculum. Cultural focus is great, but there is massive diversity amongst what many people categorically define as "the black community". We're talking about people who's roots stem from dozens of countries spanning the globe. Condensing that into a servicable, teachable program is a significant challenge (which is not to say it shouldn't be attempted).
My largest concern however is that this is nothing but political optics. That the priority isn't servicing these kids, but rather giving the appearance that something is being done. I fear that in the meantime, that the curriculum will be sub-par and the students will be further marginalized rather than given real opportunities.
And that's not even my rant. Read on...
The issue was the subject of a local CBC call in show last week. Many, many people called in expressing their displeasure with the decision to implement this school. The majority identified themselves as white. I assumed based largely on their vocabulary and anecdotes that they were "middle-class" (for lack of a better term). Overwhelmingly the criticism was that we were teaching our kids segregation, rather than tolerance. These people wanted a multi-cultural environment for their children, one where they could learn that we are all equal.
Multiculturalism. Tolerance. Acceptance. Plurality. All very noble concepts as far as I'm concerned. However, I felt an overwhelming urge to ask these people what exactly they had done up until now to support those concepts. For decades groups have been decrying the eurocentric, patriarchal, heterosexist bias of the school system. And what have people done? Not much as far as I can tell.
Canada's history is marred by just as much prejudice as any other former European colony. Our institutions were founded on principals that at best sought to assimilate non-whites males and at worst tried to eliminate them altogether. And though our current the social climate in lauds diversity, true multiculturalism and acceptance isn't simply going to happen by throwing a bunch of people from different backgrounds together and saying "get along".
For years and years and years, ethnic minorities having been telling us that the public school system doesn't acknowledge their experiences. For years and years and years, teachers have been begging for more community support, both financially and emotionally. And by and large, the more affluent among us have ignored it. If people think that because their child sits in class with some non-white kids that all is harmony and light, think again. Those kids, the one's that make you feel so good and politically correct -- those kids are struggling and too often failing. I don't know that this afrocentric school will help them, but if the mainstream system isn't serving it's students, I understand why parents are willing to try something else.
Obviously, I can't speak about any individual person's efforts, but we of the middle-class represent a pretty significant political/social demographic. If we want a true multicultural society, that takes work. It means providing teachers and auxilliary staff with the resources to serve their students. It means advocating on behalf of the students who's voices aren't being heard. It means listening when members of our community tell us they're being left out. And it think it means letting our egos get a little bruised. Racism/prejudice are pretty damning concepts and yet we've all been party to it. And maybe we need to accept that criticism sometimes, knowing that we've done our best but also understanding that perhaps we can do better in the future.
I'm definitely interested in other people's thoughts (assuming you slogged your way through).