Black Focused Schools
I for one like the idea of black focused school “afro-centric” as it’s going to be called. Unless you have actually been an active participant in the Scarborough Board of Education or the Toronto District Board of Education as a black student you have no clue what it’s like. I’ve seen teachers suggest that a black student attend Timothy Eaton B.T.I. because she could do hair. Timothy Eaton is not a school you go to if you want to pursue post-secondary education. Why would any teacher/principal encourage a student who is doing perfectly fine in school to go to a B.T.I. and pursue hairdressing? Why is it that when the black students are gathered in the hall it automatically means that we’re up to no good but if there’s a gathering of Asian students they’re automatically assumed to be studying?
You can make it through the TDSB and not know a thing about black history. I was never even taught so much as to know that the Underground Railroad wasn’t an actual train. Until someone sent me a forward about black people’s contribution to society I didn’t know anything beyond Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and a little bit of Rosa Parks. Yes, black students can take it upon themselves to go out and research their own history but why should we have to? It’s part of Canadian history as well so why is it not in the textbook?
It’s not fair that all that is seen of black society is the negative images… we see plenty of black on black crime, violence, gangs. Our youth are bombarded with images of rappers flashing jewellery and cars and lavish lifestyles and promoting hustling and thug life and then we wonder why the black youth are so messed up. We never see the successful black Canadians or Americans doing positive things for their community. In America they have black history classes… why can’t we have a little black history even in the regular class. Name me 3 successful black Canadians or Americans OTHER than Barack Obama…. I’ll wait.
Toronto claims to be all multicultural and they preach about inclusiveness and what not but in truth although Toronto has multiple cultures in the same geographic region it’s no melting pot. Go into a high school and you’ll see that people pretty much stick with their own culture.
Black focused schools are also not only for black people. It’s not like if a white or Asian person wants to go they’ll say, “nope sorry, you lack the pigment for this institution”. I’ve heard several white people complain that if black people have a black focused school to learn black history that they should be able to have a white focused school to learn white history. But tell me, what would be the difference from a regular school? Nothing at all.
I can count on one hand the black teachers I’ve had in my 14 years of public school education and university was no better. How many people know that the governor general of Canada is a black woman? Why isn’t she making any headlines… she’s essentially the most powerful woman in Canada and gets absolutely no recognition.
Now, with all that said I must emphasise the fact that black focused schools are not the end all be all solution to a much larger problem. It’s a step but there are many factors contributing to the high drop out rates among black boys and to a lesser extent girls. There are family dynamic issues that need to be addressed, environmental conditions. The mindset of these young people need to be changed and it takes an army to raise a child and the teachers and education system is a large part of that army but the family and friends are just as if not more important.
