Why I support black-focused schools
Jan. 31st, 2008 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyA few people have asked for my thoughts on the TDSB's decision in favour of black-focused schools. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sonjaaa and troubleinchina both wrote good posts on the subject (here and here), and I recommend reading those too.
I'll preface this by saying that this is a divisive issue in Toronto, particularly within the black community and the activist community. It's also a rare example of my opinion reversing on a controversial issue within a very short period of time. In August 2007, I thought that black-focused schools were a terrible idea. Five months later, I support the plan, albeit critically. This about-face happened because of a) my experiences at OISE, b) my experiences in an actual Toronto high school, and c) heated debates with people that I respect.
What is the proposal?
First, to my American friends: Please get the image of desegregation busing out of your heads. This is Toronto, not Boston, and our skanky race issues are a bit different than your skanky race issues. It's important to keep this in mind when addressing the segregation argument.
The proposal as it stands is as follows:
That's it. It will be a publicly funded alternative school, not a separate system for black students. There are already 36 alternative schools in Toronto, including the Triangle Program, which is queer-focused.
Black kids are currently dropping out of Toronto schools at a rate of 40%.
Why I support the plan
In order to agree that the plan is a good one, one has to accept two things about the Ontario public school system:
1) The Ontario public school system is racist.
2) This racism is a feature, not a bug.
To break it down even further, I will divide the teeming variety of nuanced opinions on the matter into three overgeneralized outlooks: conservative, liberal, and radical. Viewpoints for and against black-focused schools exist in each one of these categories, but for different reasons.
We'll start with the conservatives. They're usually the people who think that the system is fine the way it is, or perhaps it's too leftist and too focused on equity. They'd like history classes to stay Eurocentric, English classes to focus on dead white men, and social studies to extol the virtues of the free market. If black kids are dropping out, it's because black kids are inherently inferior; they come from cultures that do not hold education as a high priority. They are failing on an individual level. They do not agree with point #1 (or if they do, they think it's a good thing.)
If a conservative supports black-focused schools, it's because he doesn't want black kids going to school with his kids.
Next come the liberals. By and large, they agree with point #1 but they can't wrap their minds around point #2. The liberals are the reasons why Africville gets mentioned in Canadian history textbooks and why my own high school textbook had one page per chapter on "The Role of Women." The education system as it stands, though originally set up by racist white men, can be made non-racist by making small adjustments to content (but not to structure). Maybe we can add one page to every textbook on "The Role of Black People," and put up a display for Black History Month in the library. And then we'll all be one happy family.
If a liberal supports black-focused schools, it's because she doesn't want to offend her black friends.
Finally, a proper radical ought to accept points #1 and #2. If you read my posts on education, you should start to see a pattern. If you don't, just keep in mind that white people kept black slaves in Canada and nowhere in Canadian history class is this discussed. Ever. The public school system is racist in structural ways. Radical supporters of black-focused schools realize this, and understand that the only solution is an entirely new curriculum and an entirely different structure.
I hope you're starting to see why I think radicals should support black-focused schools. But if you're not convinced yet, let's look at some well-intentioned objections.
OBJECTION!
This is segregation!
This is voluntary. Non-black children can attend the proposed school; non-black teachers can teach there. Likewise, black children and teachers can still be at mainstream schools, and most will be.
Toronto schools are already segregated. Most schools in the city fall into one of two categories: vocational and collegiate. University-bound kids go to the latter; kids who will go to community college if they're lucky, but will more likely go straight to work or even drop out before graduating, go to the former. The kids streamed into collegiates are mostly white and East Asian; the kids streamed into vocational schools are mostly black and Latino. (Desis and Middle Easterners go to one or the other along class lines.)
Pop quiz: In which category of school is a history teacher more likely to cover objections to the Great (White) Man Theory of history? In which category of school are discussions likely to be more critical and open?
Rather than segregating black students, black-focused schools will put more of them on an academic track than our present system allows for by teaching courses that speak to their experiences instead of giving up on them and shunting them into non-academic schools.
Well, now won't everyone want their own publicly-funded school?
Yeah, probably. But right now, there are arts-focused schools (I attended one), a queer-focused school (as previously mentioned), French-language schools, and exclusionary Catholic schools. There are girls-only schools and boys-only schools. There is even a girls-only feminist-focused school, though it's private, so beyond the scope of this discussion. So it's not a matter of "why are black people special?" so much as "why do other so-called special interest groups get alternative schools but black people can't have one?"
Oh, and there are white-focused schools, too. All Toronto public schools currently have a white-focused curriculum that celebrates the history, achievement, and aspirations of white people.
Isn't this just a Band-Aid solution? Should any school have a Eurocentric curriculum?
Yes it is a Band-Aid solution, and yes, the whole damned system's got to go.
But see my earlier point regarding whether racism in the public school system is a feature and not a bug. I can argue until the cows come home that the curriculum has to change, that a school system based on a factory model trains children to be mindless servants to the capitalist ruling class, that we need to radically rethink how we do public schools, period. I would like all schools to have good academic programs, and good art programs, and good tech programs, and curriculum that speaks to everyone's experience. (Also Latin; it'd be awesome if schools taught Latin again.) But I'm one hopefully-soon-to-be-teacher and my opinion is in the tiniest of minorities. The curriculum is written by ruling class white men and taught largely by exhausted and heavily constrained middle-class white people. If change to the school system comes, it will come entwined with broader social upheaval.
In the meantime, 40% of black kids are dropping out of school, and it isn't because they're failing. It's because the school system is failing them. This 40% will not grow up to make the social changes we all need because their options are being curtailed. We owe them more. Black-focused schools are an imperfect solution to a complicated problem, but at least it's a start.
Sosabotabby, are you going to try to get a job in one?
A girl can dream.
Crossposted to PunkAssBlog.
sonjaaa and troubleinchina both wrote good posts on the subject (here and here), and I recommend reading those too.I'll preface this by saying that this is a divisive issue in Toronto, particularly within the black community and the activist community. It's also a rare example of my opinion reversing on a controversial issue within a very short period of time. In August 2007, I thought that black-focused schools were a terrible idea. Five months later, I support the plan, albeit critically. This about-face happened because of a) my experiences at OISE, b) my experiences in an actual Toronto high school, and c) heated debates with people that I respect.
What is the proposal?
First, to my American friends: Please get the image of desegregation busing out of your heads. This is Toronto, not Boston, and our skanky race issues are a bit different than your skanky race issues. It's important to keep this in mind when addressing the segregation argument.
The proposal as it stands is as follows:
• Go ahead with an Africentric school, to open in September 2009.
• Create and use a curriculum that includes the history and culture of blacks, as well as other minority groups, in three existing schools.
• Establish a centre for research and innovation, initially with York University, to look at helping at-risk students.
• Develop an action plan to "address underachievement for all marginalized and vulnerable students" in Toronto public schools.
That's it. It will be a publicly funded alternative school, not a separate system for black students. There are already 36 alternative schools in Toronto, including the Triangle Program, which is queer-focused.
Black kids are currently dropping out of Toronto schools at a rate of 40%.
Why I support the plan
In order to agree that the plan is a good one, one has to accept two things about the Ontario public school system:
1) The Ontario public school system is racist.
2) This racism is a feature, not a bug.
To break it down even further, I will divide the teeming variety of nuanced opinions on the matter into three overgeneralized outlooks: conservative, liberal, and radical. Viewpoints for and against black-focused schools exist in each one of these categories, but for different reasons.
We'll start with the conservatives. They're usually the people who think that the system is fine the way it is, or perhaps it's too leftist and too focused on equity. They'd like history classes to stay Eurocentric, English classes to focus on dead white men, and social studies to extol the virtues of the free market. If black kids are dropping out, it's because black kids are inherently inferior; they come from cultures that do not hold education as a high priority. They are failing on an individual level. They do not agree with point #1 (or if they do, they think it's a good thing.)
If a conservative supports black-focused schools, it's because he doesn't want black kids going to school with his kids.
Next come the liberals. By and large, they agree with point #1 but they can't wrap their minds around point #2. The liberals are the reasons why Africville gets mentioned in Canadian history textbooks and why my own high school textbook had one page per chapter on "The Role of Women." The education system as it stands, though originally set up by racist white men, can be made non-racist by making small adjustments to content (but not to structure). Maybe we can add one page to every textbook on "The Role of Black People," and put up a display for Black History Month in the library. And then we'll all be one happy family.
If a liberal supports black-focused schools, it's because she doesn't want to offend her black friends.
Finally, a proper radical ought to accept points #1 and #2. If you read my posts on education, you should start to see a pattern. If you don't, just keep in mind that white people kept black slaves in Canada and nowhere in Canadian history class is this discussed. Ever. The public school system is racist in structural ways. Radical supporters of black-focused schools realize this, and understand that the only solution is an entirely new curriculum and an entirely different structure.
I hope you're starting to see why I think radicals should support black-focused schools. But if you're not convinced yet, let's look at some well-intentioned objections.
OBJECTION!
This is segregation!
This is voluntary. Non-black children can attend the proposed school; non-black teachers can teach there. Likewise, black children and teachers can still be at mainstream schools, and most will be.
Toronto schools are already segregated. Most schools in the city fall into one of two categories: vocational and collegiate. University-bound kids go to the latter; kids who will go to community college if they're lucky, but will more likely go straight to work or even drop out before graduating, go to the former. The kids streamed into collegiates are mostly white and East Asian; the kids streamed into vocational schools are mostly black and Latino. (Desis and Middle Easterners go to one or the other along class lines.)
Pop quiz: In which category of school is a history teacher more likely to cover objections to the Great (White) Man Theory of history? In which category of school are discussions likely to be more critical and open?
Rather than segregating black students, black-focused schools will put more of them on an academic track than our present system allows for by teaching courses that speak to their experiences instead of giving up on them and shunting them into non-academic schools.
Well, now won't everyone want their own publicly-funded school?
Yeah, probably. But right now, there are arts-focused schools (I attended one), a queer-focused school (as previously mentioned), French-language schools, and exclusionary Catholic schools. There are girls-only schools and boys-only schools. There is even a girls-only feminist-focused school, though it's private, so beyond the scope of this discussion. So it's not a matter of "why are black people special?" so much as "why do other so-called special interest groups get alternative schools but black people can't have one?"
Oh, and there are white-focused schools, too. All Toronto public schools currently have a white-focused curriculum that celebrates the history, achievement, and aspirations of white people.
Isn't this just a Band-Aid solution? Should any school have a Eurocentric curriculum?
Yes it is a Band-Aid solution, and yes, the whole damned system's got to go.
But see my earlier point regarding whether racism in the public school system is a feature and not a bug. I can argue until the cows come home that the curriculum has to change, that a school system based on a factory model trains children to be mindless servants to the capitalist ruling class, that we need to radically rethink how we do public schools, period. I would like all schools to have good academic programs, and good art programs, and good tech programs, and curriculum that speaks to everyone's experience. (Also Latin; it'd be awesome if schools taught Latin again.) But I'm one hopefully-soon-to-be-teacher and my opinion is in the tiniest of minorities. The curriculum is written by ruling class white men and taught largely by exhausted and heavily constrained middle-class white people. If change to the school system comes, it will come entwined with broader social upheaval.
In the meantime, 40% of black kids are dropping out of school, and it isn't because they're failing. It's because the school system is failing them. This 40% will not grow up to make the social changes we all need because their options are being curtailed. We owe them more. Black-focused schools are an imperfect solution to a complicated problem, but at least it's a start.
So
sabotabby, are you going to try to get a job in one?A girl can dream.
Crossposted to PunkAssBlog.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 07:40 pm (UTC)Nice post.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 07:44 pm (UTC)The other thing I should mention is that in Ontario, we have publicly-funded Catholic schools, which non-Catholics can attend but not teach at. I'm actually for abolishing these because, unlike the proposed black-focused schools, they do discriminate on the taxpayer's dime.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 07:48 pm (UTC)CYA note: I am not trying to equate being black with being homeless in this comment! Heddin'm' off at th' pass...
PS - Will there be a job opening where the offical title is "Nice White Lady"? :)
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 07:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 07:52 pm (UTC)PS - Will there be a job opening where the offical title is "Nice White Lady"? :)
Haha, I hope so.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 07:53 pm (UTC)When you say that, though, it also becomes apparent that there's a bit of racism in the phrase "Euro" centric; as if the European continent is a cultural monolith. The French could not be more different from the Germans, for example. And in Asia, there's no love lost between the Vietnamese and the Chinese, just to name one. And there was a very interesting article in SWINDLE awhile ago about the rise and fall of Pan-Africanism. Apparently those daishiki-wearing motherland-lovers from the US who returned to Africa expecting to be received with open arms got a rude awakening when they were viewed as total foreigners. Cultural differences are bound more tightly to race in North America than in those races' continents of origin, is all I'm sayin'.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 07:53 pm (UTC)I'm glad to see this post. Thank you!
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 07:55 pm (UTC)They're very discriminatory, obviously. They're desperate for tech teachers but I can't teach there 'cause I'm Jewish.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 07:57 pm (UTC)no subject
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.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 08:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 08:01 pm (UTC)I consider it only efficient to simply befriend people smart enough to say smart shit for me and leave me more time for reading comic books y'see.
Maybe I should be paying you....
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 08:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 08:06 pm (UTC)Add to the class segregation (which is also race segregation, although it doesn't neatly line up) the way streaming is done now. The crap about "Pathways" and "Honouring Every Destination" is just that—crap. If there's a University English class and a Workplace/Essentials English class and only the money to buy books for one, guess which one gets the books?
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 08:06 pm (UTC)Heh. I heart you.
Very nice post, clearly and calmly written -- you really made me think about something I'd otherwise just dismiss on first hearing. Which is good.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 08:07 pm (UTC)....wha? //boggles slightly
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 08:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 08:10 pm (UTC)When I was on anti-depressants, I was frequently told that they were a "crutch." Which they were, totally. But people say this like it's a bad thing. If you break your leg, you need a crutch for a bit. I broke my brain, and needed a crutch.
One can apply this metaphor quite well to radical vs. reformist debates. Someone could very well bleed to death without a reform, waiting for radical change to happen.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 08:12 pm (UTC)hahahahaha
ahahahaha
haha
*cries*
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 08:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 08:16 pm (UTC)Any kid can go, though.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 08:17 pm (UTC)I am also amazed at the variety of alternative schools you have up there. We have a couple magnet schools and tons of private Christian ones. That's pretty much it.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-31 08:18 pm (UTC)I don't think in my 6 years of high school that I ever had or even saw a new textbook... in some classes, we ever had to share, even though I was in high school pre-amalgamation... the Scarborough Board of Ed was just that underfunded. Or maybe it was just the school I was in. I bet schools like Mowat & R.H. King (mostly white, middle-class.. people had to apply to get into R.H. King even though it was a public school) had new books.