Kate's Wrapup On Afrocentric Schools

Lefties Will Be Getting Out Their Label Makers

Apartheid High

Streamlining the "school-to-jail pipeline", an Afrocentric school in Toronto receives approval. And not a moment too soon!

2001-2002 statistical data from the [Toronto District School Board] indicates the percentage of students from specific geograpical locations at risk of not graduating:

- 45% of Western African, Central and South American students at risk
- 39% East African
- 24 % of South Asian
- 23% Eastern European
- 16% Eastern Asian

Watch for the next step in this brave new social scheme - redefining academic standards to "normalize" Afro-achievement.

More here, here and here - "where race and failure are the only criteria for entrance".

And here (from Jan. 26th);

My black special ed students were quite a challenge. I set and upheld high standards and my students all improved markedly, both behaviourally and academically. But, as I said, this took constant vigilance and intervention on my part, with no to negative pull from their usually single mothers. This group is now in another class, with a much less experienced teacher. Their behaviour has deteriorated rapidly. Very sad.

I also taught summer school in an inner city school with many black kids, many of the girls wearing hijab. The insolence, sense of entitlement, and plain bad manners of a good number of these kids was most disturbing, not to mention that, academically, the standard was pretty low. (One “hijabbed” young miss, about 10, refused to stand for “O Canada”: “It’s not my country.” That only happened on the first day as I made it altogether clear that sitting for the national anthem was NOT an option.)

It’s occurred to me that an all-black school—presumably for the most troubled and troublesome kids—would be hell (for the all black teachers, I suppose) to work in UNLESS it set a very different standard from most public schools: uniforms, high behavioural and academic expectations, upheld on a consistent basis. In other words, Tough Love. I don’t, however, see that happening. E.g., I saw a panel discussion on TVO about the Falconer Commission: Board Director, with her pasted on smile, slogan spouting head of the union, two almost inarticulate parents, one white, one black, a yappy, chip on the shoulder, black trustee, and John Snobelen. As no one was willing to actually diagnose the problem, the solutions they suggested were mere bromides. The problem for most of the problem kids? The accepted family structure of many kids by many fathers, with no dad around the home sets these kids up for failure from the start. Their mothers are often very young, uneducated, inarticulate, chip on the shoulder women who are not able to provide the security and role modelling necessary to socialize their kids. Any school for this type of kid would have to be built on a philosophy of high structure and non negotiable authority, consistently and seriously enforced. I believe any “solution” which overlooks this is not going to make much of a difference.

Racist!

There. I saved you the trouble.

Posted by Kate at 12:48 AM | Comments (9)