- Aug 20, 2000
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So up here in Toronto, Canada, the idea of a black youth-focused high school has recently been floated by a black secondary school teacher. It hasn't met with all that much support - actually, quite the opposite. Here's the gist of the proposal being set forward:
It might not be such a bad thing to 'isolate' black students.
Implicit comparisons happen daily between black, white, Asian, Middle Eastern, etc students while in class. You compare mathematical abilities, reading levels, family fiscal status, clothing, and more. The have-nots always tend towards resenting the haves.
The most impartial teacher on the planet will manage his class based on these factors. The cleancut white kid in the front row, or the doorag wearing black kid slouching in the back row because to some extent he's expected to be unprepared, surly and perhaps even dressed a certain way. These are things that student needs to break out of, and this is where eliminating the possibility of comparisons can be a net positive.
Example: I've always noticed that classes that lean heavily towards being all-male or all-female are livelier, and more responsive to the teacher/professor than one with a more even mix. You're simply not as afraid of saying something stupid and making a fool of yourself in front of the class. Why can't the same principle apply to the racial divide? I imagine it already does.
Artificially establishing a majority of black teachers and counselors can be a positive.
Again, with the certain amount of implicit racism that's fairly common even in the city of Toronto - it really doesn't get much more diverse than it is here - taking a discussion about study habits, problems at home, a future career... it's going to be somewhat easier to do this with someone your own race (and gender) than the alternative.
Someone, say, who may understand implicitly what the home conditions of a black student are like and how there's a certain amount of bias against scholarly excellence because it's looked upon as 'white'. Establishing strong same-race role models in a school like this might be a small caveat now for far greater returns in the future.
Whaddya think? Since the article I got this all from is registration-required, I'll just post it in its entirely in the 2nd post of this thread.
While there's some troublingly awful assertions made by Mr. Sium (who spoke all of the above), in my opinion he's got one or two points. These are:"Black students still deal with mostly white guidance counsellors and teachers, so I'm cynical about what gets done to encourage them. The kids start to see themselves as non-academic. We need to show what can be done to encourage their potential.
"The black-focused school I'm proposing couldn't be exclusively for black students, because black students don't always want to be with just black students."
"I don't agree the school should be just for students on the brink of dropping out. The school should be used as a lab, if you like, where curriculum ideas could be developed and tested and out of that could come ideas for the whole school program. The school would offer both academic and applied courses to serve students of all abilities."
"But there should be only one school ? not more ? because then you're setting up a segregated system. Separating students by race is not a long-term solution. It would lead to separation of people by racial background and I'm not in favour of it and actually I don't think our youth, black or otherwise, are in favour of it. I'm in favour of a public system that works for everybody. So if a black-focused school can help in the short term to find ways to accommodate all students, then that would be good.
"Quotas would help. The black-focused school would have predominantly black teachers, but not exclusively."
"And it wouldn't be a school that teaches only black history. It should be everybody's history but integrated with Afro-centric issues that the rest of the school system is not teaching."
It might not be such a bad thing to 'isolate' black students.
Implicit comparisons happen daily between black, white, Asian, Middle Eastern, etc students while in class. You compare mathematical abilities, reading levels, family fiscal status, clothing, and more. The have-nots always tend towards resenting the haves.
The most impartial teacher on the planet will manage his class based on these factors. The cleancut white kid in the front row, or the doorag wearing black kid slouching in the back row because to some extent he's expected to be unprepared, surly and perhaps even dressed a certain way. These are things that student needs to break out of, and this is where eliminating the possibility of comparisons can be a net positive.
Example: I've always noticed that classes that lean heavily towards being all-male or all-female are livelier, and more responsive to the teacher/professor than one with a more even mix. You're simply not as afraid of saying something stupid and making a fool of yourself in front of the class. Why can't the same principle apply to the racial divide? I imagine it already does.
Artificially establishing a majority of black teachers and counselors can be a positive.
Again, with the certain amount of implicit racism that's fairly common even in the city of Toronto - it really doesn't get much more diverse than it is here - taking a discussion about study habits, problems at home, a future career... it's going to be somewhat easier to do this with someone your own race (and gender) than the alternative.
Someone, say, who may understand implicitly what the home conditions of a black student are like and how there's a certain amount of bias against scholarly excellence because it's looked upon as 'white'. Establishing strong same-race role models in a school like this might be a small caveat now for far greater returns in the future.
Whaddya think? Since the article I got this all from is registration-required, I'll just post it in its entirely in the 2nd post of this thread.