The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is currently holding meetings in an attempt to start a "blacks' only school" in Toronto. This is the 21st century, so of course the proposed learning centre cannot be referred to as "blacks' only" --the fancy politically correct name is an "Afro-centric" school.
Given the fact that this is Canada with its pesky Charter of Rights, all students will be free to attend this school if the idea ever gets off the ground. But it is doubtful that many, if any at all, young people, who do not describe their race as black will opt to go there. The good news is that in addition to black teachers and staff, presumably the students will have their own black washrooms and black drinking fountains. Ah--who says you can't go back to the '50s?
The irony about raising this issue now is that it comes just a month after the last provincial election. The key issue in that election; the one that robbed PC leader John Tory of any chance of forming the government was the proposal to publicly fund faith-based schools. At the time, Premier Dalton McGuinty railed at the suggestion, ranting that the opposition leader's proposal was segregationist. Now that it's his buddies who are suggesting a segregated school, he's a lot more muted commenting only that he is "uncomfortable" with the idea of a school for blacks. McGuinty's preference is to have all kids go to school together. Dalton seems to be mellowing in his old age; for him, this hardly ranks as an inconsistency.
It was left to Education Minister Kathleen Wynne to deal with the matter of religious schools--bad; black schools--good. Wynne was quoted as saying, That [Tory's proposal] had nothing to do with student achievement. What the Toronto board is trying to do, to their credit, is find ways of helping students who are not achieving to achieve better, so I think there are two separate debates."
The Minister's comment is nothing more than nonsensical spin. Is Wynne trying to suggest that those Ontarians who send or want to send their children to religious schools, don't want or don't care about their children achieving? Of course they do. For parents who are concerned about the education of their children, it's always about achievement. People look to religious schools to provide the moral guidance and rigorous academic standards that are missing in Dalton's beloved publicly funded system. That is unless we are prepared to believe that these parents have some sinister extremist agenda for wanting their children in taught in a religious environment.
What was really unfortunate about the now-previous educational policy of the Progressive Conservatives is that it was based only upon religion. Had the party floated the idea of charter schools; where the government would fund all different types of schools that contained a basic core curriculum, it might have had a chance. If a charter system ever came into being, the province could have schools that specialized in such things as sports, dance and music. Afro-centric or Tamil-centric schools would be a natural part of such a system.
It is hard to believe that this proposed Afro-centric school could affect the high dropout rate of black students without being dumbed-down. If the students could be segregated from the rest of society after graduation, it wouldn't be so bad--but they can't. Graduates from such a school are likely to be stigmatized by where they went to school. But that's not really important; what is important is that the mainly white social engineers in the government and at the Toronto District School Board feel good about themselves.
Fortunately, there is strong opposition from parents in the black community who see this proposal for what it really is--segregation. Hopefully, they will keep up the pressure so that this idea never gets off the ground.
The racial mix in Canada, like most things, isn't a matter of black and white. It will only be a matter of time before other races will be demanding their own schools.
And what should these students be doing after school gets out in the afternoon?
Perhaps the province will have to build a black-only shopping mall where these kids can hang out?
