I honestly think that a lot of this "this is segregation all over again" is a lot of racist bullshit in order to scare people & shut down debate & discussion. It's fearmongering in order to distract people away from the real issue: schools are unhealthy places to learn. I dropped out of high school three fucking times before getting my diploma & I barely functioned in the alternative school I went to as well. It was completely baffling to teachers & administrators: I was smart, I started out with good grades & I understood the concepts & bullshit I was supposed to repeat back & understand, so why couldn't I go to class? & When I did go, why was did I go stoned? I was a nice, white girl (& so was my sister, who had the exact same issues as me, only she never went back after she dropped out at 15) what the hell was my problem? Because of being white, I got more sympathy & understanding than the black students in my situation... not to mention the fact that I wasn't directly suffering from a racist system. I still kept dropping out, though. At least I wasn't expelled.
I'd also like to add that schools are also segregated according to class: When you graduate from elementary school, you generally go to the high school closes to you (vocational or collegiate, yes). But even the collegiates are class segregated by virute of which neighbourhood they're in. Like in Scarborough, there are rich neighbourhoods & poor neighbourhoods.. & middle/mixed neighbourhoods. I went to a school in a mostly poor neighbourhood & I had friends that went to school in a mostly rich neighbourhood. Then we have schools in Scarborough like Pearson, in Malvern, Malvern being a mostly poor neighbourhood... etc. etc. etc.
I completely agree with what you're saying though... totally. My high school had a Afro-Caribbean history class (which I didn't take...being a habitual drop out). It was a total band-aid, token class, but it did affect how the students that took it (mostly black/west indian/trini/guyanese/etc., but there were a few white kids) felt about going to school. It was the same with the world issues class I took: the class used to be bullshit, taught by an old, white guy (not to villainize old white guys! I had a few great old white guy teachers) who was totally into the curriculum as it stands. The year I took the class, we had a brand new outta teacher's college teacher who totally introduced the idea of colonialism, racism & sexism into high school thinking. She was completely awesome (a nice white lady! ha!).
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Date: 2008-01-31 07:57 pm (UTC)I honestly think that a lot of this "this is segregation all over again" is a lot of racist bullshit in order to scare people & shut down debate & discussion. It's fearmongering in order to distract people away from the real issue: schools are unhealthy places to learn. I dropped out of high school three fucking times before getting my diploma & I barely functioned in the alternative school I went to as well. It was completely baffling to teachers & administrators: I was smart, I started out with good grades & I understood the concepts & bullshit I was supposed to repeat back & understand, so why couldn't I go to class? & When I did go, why was did I go stoned? I was a nice, white girl (& so was my sister, who had the exact same issues as me, only she never went back after she dropped out at 15) what the hell was my problem? Because of being white, I got more sympathy & understanding than the black students in my situation... not to mention the fact that I wasn't directly suffering from a racist system. I still kept dropping out, though. At least I wasn't expelled.
I'd also like to add that schools are also segregated according to class: When you graduate from elementary school, you generally go to the high school closes to you (vocational or collegiate, yes). But even the collegiates are class segregated by virute of which neighbourhood they're in. Like in Scarborough, there are rich neighbourhoods & poor neighbourhoods.. & middle/mixed neighbourhoods. I went to a school in a mostly poor neighbourhood & I had friends that went to school in a mostly rich neighbourhood. Then we have schools in Scarborough like Pearson, in Malvern, Malvern being a mostly poor neighbourhood... etc. etc. etc.
I completely agree with what you're saying though... totally. My high school had a Afro-Caribbean history class (which I didn't take...being a habitual drop out). It was a total band-aid, token class, but it did affect how the students that took it (mostly black/west indian/trini/guyanese/etc., but there were a few white kids) felt about going to school. It was the same with the world issues class I took: the class used to be bullshit, taught by an old, white guy (not to villainize old white guys! I had a few great old white guy teachers) who was totally into the curriculum as it stands. The year I took the class, we had a brand new outta teacher's college teacher who totally introduced the idea of colonialism, racism & sexism into high school thinking. She was completely awesome (a nice white lady! ha!).
Fuck, I'll shut up now.