Cheers erupted in the packed public gallery after the controversial* motion for the high school for black students passed 14-6.
“It’s a great opportunity to serve our students and that’s what this has always been about,” said the board’s education director, Chris Spence. “You know, how do we think outside the box and support our students the best way we can.”
Spence said data from Toronto’s Africentric elementary school, which opened in September 2009, suggests the board is taking the right approach.
Students in that school have produced above-average provincial test scores and there is a wait list to get in.
Trustee Shaun Chen said an Africentric high school is the next step in addressing the 40 per cent dropout rate among black students.
“The disengagement that the students in the black community are facing in our regular schools does not stop in Grade 8,” he said.
* Everything I’ve seen indicates that Africentric schools are only controversial for white people, though I would love to see criticism from a POC and specifically black viewpoint, if it’s out there and I just haven’t come across it.
jhameia:
wildunicornherd:
Same thing we do every night, Pinky…
…go on Twitter and lol at all the totally open-minded white leftists in my feed who are uncomfortable with Toronto’s Africentric alternative school.
(The school has been a success and the TDSB is currently considering opening more.)
Haha, what dumb shit are they saying about this obviously awesome school?
Well, it’s a school just for black kids, so it’s “segregation”, which raises alarm bells. (As another Twitterer pointed out, since it was established because of how disadvantaged black kids are in the current system, you could also see it as affirmative action. Then again that raises people’s hackles as well.)
There’s already a similar school for First Nations students and a program for students who are at risk in their current schools because of homophobia or transphobia.
I’d love to know why an Africentric school is somehow more threatening than the existing Eurocentric schools, and “Europeans built Canada!!” is not an acceptable answer.
Same thing we do every night, Pinky…
…go on Twitter and lol at all the totally open-minded white leftists in my feed who are uncomfortable with Toronto’s Africentric alternative school.
(The school has been a success and the TDSB is currently considering opening more.)
