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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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 Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 12:24 am Post subject: |
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| Like why I don't believe in creationism? |
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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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| Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:06 am Post subject: |
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Afrocentric' school approved in Toronto
Natalie Alcoba, Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, January 30, 2008
TORONTO - The Toronto District School Board narrowly approved a proposal to create the city's first Afrocentric public school during a meeting Tuesday night.
Following more than two hours of public submissions, which including opposition to the motion from the mother of slain teenager Jordan Manners, the vote was recorded as 11 in favour and 9 against.
One trustee was absent and board chair John Campbell excused himself from the vote.
Angela Wilson, left, and Donna Harrow, right, celebrate after an a majority voting in favour of whether the City of Toronto should open an afrocentric school.
Angela Wilson, left, and Donna Harrow, right, celebrate after an a majority voting in favour of whether the City of Toronto should open an afrocentric school.
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"I don't know if an Afrocentric school is the answer," said Sheila Ward, who represents Toronto Centre-Rosedale. But this proposal "is not about segregation or integration, it's about student success," she said, before raising her hand in support.
Afterwards, a crush of reporters gathered around the two women who have pushed for the school as a way to help underachieving black youth succeed.
"We're ecstatic," said Angela Wilson, who stood next to her co-organizer Donna Harrow. "We've got so many other things planned. This is not just it."
The grade levels and location of the Afrocentric school have not yet been decided.
All four recommendations put forward in a staff report, entitled Improving Success for Black Students, passed Tuesday.
In addition to working towards opening an Afrocentric Alternative School in September 2009, the board endorsed the idea of establishing an enriched African curriculum in three existing schools by the start of the next school year, it approved a staff development, research and innovation centre that looks at ways to improve school achievement for marginalized and vulnerable students, along with an action plan that tackles that issue in the TDSB.
The school board admits a "disproportionate" number of black youth are failing in their schools.
According to its statistics, 40 per cent do not graduate, compared with about 25 per cent board wide.
But advocates of the Afrocentric proposal say it is the existing "eurocentric" system that is failing black students, and believe the alternative model being presented is an endeavor worth trying.
The TDSB defines an Afrocentric school as one which "uses the sources of knowledge and experiences of peoples of African descent as an integral feature of the teaching and learning environment." The school would be open to all students.
In her submission to trustees before the vote, Loreen Small, whose son Jordan Manners was shot and killed in a public high school last year, said she worried the school would "segregate" students.
"Martin Luther King and so many of our fathers fought to come together, so blacks and whites could be together," Ms. Small said. "This black school thing, no, it ain't right."
During her presentation, Ms. Harrow said misinformation has buried the truth. The proposal "is not a black-focused school, is not a school for only black students," Ms. Harrow said. She added that an Afrocentric school would "nurture and support" all children as they strive to succeed.
"We must speak the truth," said Ms. Harrow.
"I believe one who opens school doors, closes prison doors," Ms. Wilson said. "It's not about segregation. It's about self-determination."
Winston LaRose, executive director of the Jane Finch Concerned Citizens Organization, challenged that notion that public schools are beacons of diversity, saying that, in truth, many schools already "don't represent the diversity you so much talk about."
Andre Levy, who lives in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood, called the proposal a "half-baked solution to issues faced by black students."
Trustee Maria Rodrigues said she could not, in good conscience, deny "these black parents their right to establish an Afrocentric school." She voted in favour of the proposal, which she said would give students choices and work "to stop systemic discrimination" in public schools.
Gerri Gershon, who represents Don Valley West, maintained that "separating kids according to their colour is simply not the answer."
National Post |
because if there's one place on the planet you would want to model your school system after, it's Africa's. Just ask Oprah! |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:55 am Post subject: |
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| Newbie wrote: |
| Octavius Hite wrote: |
As long as they are teaching properly (i.e. science and not magic, lookinga t you Catholics) and it helps all the kids not get pregnant or gold teeth I'm for it. |
You ignorant tw@t... Catholic schools teach evolution, that the world was NOT made in 7 days, and all that other crap. Catholics do not take the Old Testament literally.
Don't let your bitterness over misunderstood views on your sexual orientation let you spread lies. |
How could I have missed this?
Octavius, get your head out of your ass. Catholics DO NOT EQUAL fundamentalist evangelicals. I, too, attended Catholic schools, and we were taught evolution. The Pope has stated that evolution has no bearing on God's divinity (IOW, why would there be a conflict between evolution & faith?).
Furthermore, OH, FYI, homosexuality was never addressed in my Catholic schooling. That's right, it was neither condemned nor approved. The implicit message was: its between the homosexual and the confessional.
Catholicism is all about the Church hierarchy intervening between the masses and scripture, because of the problems that occur when laymen read the Good Book. Do you understand? Its almost the polar opposite of this fundamentalist evangelical crap where people read Genesis and say "hey, it says 7 days, so it must mean 164 hours!" |
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 11:39 pm Post subject: |
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National Post Editorial Board on Afrocentric Schools: In Toronto, separate but equal
Fifty-four years after the U.S. Supreme Court decided Brown vs. Board of Education, the noxious doctrine of �separate but equal� is making a comeback here in Canada. Its proponents are motivated not by racism, but by a misguided desire to bolster self-esteem among black students.
As in many other North American cities, the chronic academic under-performance of Toronto�s blacks is an ongoing scandal. The drop-out rate for blacks in the GTA is about 40%, almost double the rate for non-blacks. There also have been a number of high-profile black-on-black murders involving Toronto teenagers in recent months. The killing of 15-year-old Jordan Manners at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate last May was especially shocking � and led to the commissioning of a report on school safety that predictably pinned much of the blame on white racism. Empower black students, the theory goes, and they will flourish. Following on this idea, the Toronto District School Board voted on Tuesday to open an alternative, Afrocentric school.
The plan is misguided for a variety of reasons. The most obvious is that segregation � even self-segregation � represents a retreat to an uglier, more backward era of race relations. A second reason is that low self-esteem likely has nothing to do with the underlying problem. Studies from the United States show that black students there actually have higher self-esteem than their better-performing white peers.
The engines of academic success are the same for students of all races: hard work, rigorous curricula, supportive parents, good teachers, safe schools and intelligent administrators. The idea that, instead of all this, what black students actually need are lessons in the supposed glories of African civilization is silly and patronizing. And we applaud the province of Ontario for refusing to provide special funding for the plan. (The Toronto District School Board says it will find the necessary funds from within existing financial resources.)
There is no mystery as to why so many blacks do poorly in Toronto schools. Students do not come to school a blank slate. Rather, they bring with them the intellectual attitudes, cultural values, behavioural expectations and peer associations that characterize their home life and community. In Toronto, many schools in poor areas struggle with a student base disproportionately drawn from broken and single-parent homes. Drugs, gangs, teen pregnancy, dismissive attitudes toward education and hard work, and a variety of other factors that have nothing to do with school policy also serve to drag down student performance.
These are the real problems facing blacks � problems that can�t be solved for them by anyone except members of their own community exercising their own free will and inherent strength of character. Segregating black students in a separate-but-equal building and teaching them that Africans invented Pythagorean theorem won�t help a soul. It will merely serve to turn school into one long, endless field trip back to 1954. |
http://network.nationalpost.com
These Blacks are almost all recent immigrants from the Caribbean who brought with them their cultural values regarding education and the like. Canada is importing American-style racial issues and now going out of her way to exacerbate these issues by sticking them in their own corner. I just don't think Canada is a serious country anymore. Either we want a society that is cohesive or we want ever tribe in their corner.
Anyways, I just don't see how this can help Black students do better. |
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