Afrocentric Schools...the debate is over, its now a reality.

They voted 11 for,9 against, 2 non-votes in favour of the Afrocentric school which is set to open in September 2009, if they get the funding and the system works in terms of timing.

The TDSB website doesn't say when or where...but its a huge COMING SOON project.

Last year we had some serious debates about this, a room full of minorities with very different takes on this subject. I still think about this when I watch BET or when I see Obama on t.v. because it reminds me of all the things minorities have strived to gain but are willing to give away as long as it seems that we are having a chance to speak for ourselves.

The idea of having an Afrocentric curriculum that helps marginalized students (40% out of a 100% that are drop outs) is one that certainly looks like its lined in gold. It looks like we are getting a chance to teach black kids from a black perspective and that its going to give them a better chance at graduating. That allowing them to be taught their own history is going to somehow get them to show up to class, to understand math and english differently.

I have to say that I am completely against this because I know that no matter what perspective you teach from you cannot reach a child with merely different materials and possibly a different set of people. Being a minority is not a dysfunction, it is not learning disability, it is simply a truth of birth.

Afrocentric schooling is not going to change the fact that when certain students go home they are faced with a different history, things such as poverty, single parent homes, abuse, lack of role models, having children of their own. Are these historical points going to be addressed as part of an Afrocentric curriculum? Are they going to change these situations for these students so they have a better chance at attending classes without dealing with these realities?

Education is a privilege that we do not take seriously enough in this country, it is something that starts at home, it starts from a child wanting to learn. You cannot change that in anyone, it must come from a place within that child. If you don't help that baby, that toddler, that preschooler, that child and then eventually that student you cannot expect that same student to progress as if they are every other child. We address so many other things in this society, but we do not ask ourselves if we are teaching our children the necessities of education.

I learnt how to read on the kitchen floor, I would read from a primary school book when I was three or four while my mother cooked dinner. I did homework from school but that was nothing compared to the work I had to do when I came home because my mother had her own set of books I had to work on. I have to admit that if it wasn't for my "home-schooling" I probably would have been a horrible student because most of the day, I day dreamed because teachers could not capture my interest.

What if my mother didn't do this for me? Who would I be? I had a set of parents who would take me to the library like it was church, other kids went to Chuckie Cheese, I went to used bookstores. I wasn't allowed to watch R rated movies, but I read all the Danielle Steele I wanted at age nine.

Regardless of the outrage I feel at segregating a student population on the basis of their minority status, I truly hope that this system works for these students, or at least I hope that their parents are going to take a role in their education. Its time for the focus of the black community to be on the children because otherwise the cycle will continue, and its not something that needs to with the amount of resources available to the general population.

As well as a side note I hope that as much as this 40% is important, the other students like me who went to an "inner city" school are recognized, because we went to those schools, and we went to class, a lot of us went on to post secondary school and we did learn something. Dropping out was not an option I saw for myself, but it had nothing to do with the colour of my skin or where I came from, it was a decision I made and that hopefully seeing no difference in the others in the classroom these students will come to make for themselves.

There are so many great people who excelled despite the hurdles in their way, we fought for the right for equality and it was on the basis of our excellence, in the fact that we are not different, we are not.

If I were to have kids where would I find the curriculum to fit them? Jamaican/Caribbean/SriLankan/Malay/Tamil/Moor/Muslim/Christian...it would be a tough thing to imagine...but if were going to segregate this would be reality.

I have to look to the words of a great leader.... Cowardice asks the question - is it safe? Vanity asks the question - is it popular? Expediency asks the question - is it political? But conscience asks the question - is it right? There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, popular, or political; but because it is right. (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Time will tell I suppose!