"After a heated but civil debate, Canada's largest school board voted 11-9 last night to open an alternative Africentric school to help fight a 40 per cent dropout rate among Toronto's black teens." - GTA Board Okays Black-Focused School
So it's happened. The TDSB has voted in favour of the black-only schools. I'm absolutely stunned. (So stunned that I can't even figure out an appropriate title for this post.) A friend of ours from high school is teaching math and science in one of the original pilot classrooms, I bumped into a mutual friend of ours on the subway and she mentioned to me how horrific he thought the entire thing was. Yeah, he's black, but does it matter?
This whole thing smacks of racial segregation, it's the kind of insane thing you'd expect of US politicians. The ridiculous "no child left behind" kind of thing. It's a band-aid solution at best, at worst it's going to polarise an already vulnerable and at risk group of kids. I still can't fathom how this could have even been passed.
Apathy I suppose?
Even the best of us suffer from it.
4 comments:
Best of us? School board?
Pfft.
It all does sound a bit ass-backwards.
I listened to some of the Town Hall before the vote, and I got the impression that most of the black folks who spoke there were in favour of the idea.
I don't think they're segregated classes per se, from what was discussed, but I could be wrong.
What did leave me appalled was the way the majority of the speakers said (to much applause) that this sort of thing was what would keep black kids in school, and out of gangs. Yes, the lack of black-focused history lessons are the problem, apparently.
On guy had the balls to get up and say that it's up to the parents and kids to take responsibility and stay in school, &c, &c, but they didn't clap for him.
i was gonna blog about this....i personally didn't like the idea at all! already they complain about racism, segregation and so on and this is like going back to ancient times and favoring the segregation it self! They could have done alternatives in the current schooling system but this one doesn't feel right...and I am happy that the Premier didn't agree on the funding for these schools..
I do actually have a response to the three of you, but it ended up being so long that it's going to be a post. What's that? You'll probably never see it because I'll be too lazy to post it?
You're probably right.
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