The issue of “Africa centric” schools and classes is something that I’ve wanted to talk about for a long time and today I read one of the most insane articles ever. The Toronto Star has a piece on Africentric schools and specifically a pilot Africentric Grade 7 math class. What the hell is the difference between Africentric math and regular math? To make it politically correct, The Star interview a white girl who’s all gung ho about the class and how interesting it is.
The Star goes further into it and claims that because of this program test scores went up while suspension rates decreased and even quoted one teacher talking about how students enjoyed the “Africentric math” classes. My question is, what type of content is taught in this type of class and how does math relate to specific parts of the world? Why would math from Africa be more interesting than say math from Europe, Asia or North America? More importantly, how does this new Africentric math apply to the real world?
The Toronto board tested Africentric lessons last year in social studies, math, history, dance and music in 45 classes in Grades 6, 7 and 8 across several dozen schools, in a bid to make the curriculum more relevant and engaging for black students who tend to drop out in higher numbers than children of other backgrounds.
At Brookview, the courses are believed to have been one reason test scores went up and suspensions went down over the last year, along with a dynamic new principal who has toughened the rules, brightened the halls and greets students with a smile and a wave of his old-fashioned school bell.
Source: The Star
Of course this all begs the question if the school board is willing to cater towards one minority, why not others? Where were the Chinese centric classes when I went to school? Japanese, Korean, Inuit, Hispanic, Irish, German well you get the idea… Another thing I have a hard time comprehending is, why is the black community so for this? Sigh I hate to say this but by allowing “black focused schools”, it sounds like black students specifically are not smart enough to make it in a regular school. It’s a shame because I knew of many capable black students when I was in school. Do they not find it offensive, I mean the public school board is basically saying their children are incompetent and that they need special classes.
Most importantly, by succumbing to this doesn’t it tell the black students that they’re not good enough to cut it with everyone else and that society owes it to them to make their life easier? This is a dangerous line that the public school system is about to cross and it’s something that will definitely bight them in the ass in the future.
I would go a step further and say that the program is racially divisive and form of segregation. Black kids are not dumber than white kids, yellow kids or green kids and any claim that an eight year old black kids will learn more about a subject if it’s more Africa centric is based on the assumption that the child has some ties to Africa… which is unlikely in Toronto. It’s far more plausible that the kid was born here and has lived here his whole life. Are we to teach him that instead of relating to other people his age (regardless of race), that (s)he should feel more connected to “his own kind”? It’s insane.
If you want to fight drop out rates and improve test scores perhaps it might make more sense to look into the living conditions of the students in question. Compared to white kids, how many of them have a balanced breakfast and lunch? Parents available at home to help with their homework? The fact is that the richer your family, the more support you have in your education.
This claim that non Africa-centric schools are the problem is nothing more than a galling smoke-screen for the fact that economic status is the real problem. Shame on the Star for printing it.
I think economics is a huge factor but it can’t be the only one. Racialized (and gendered) structures can’t quite be reduced to pure economics. I say this despite my massive affinity for neo-Marxist critiques! I would argue that racialized structures separate and “take off” on their own, forming another, but interconnected, form of reproducing the stat quo. This better explains racism at all levels of class. With ideas of hypodescent and reification of race, people still attribute ‘grammatical errors’ to race, and their attribution is not shorthand for saying, “You are less / improperly educated” with the implicit “compared to the white man.”
It’s a gross mess, because it’s a dialectic with no easy way forward. The case for all-black schools (or dominantly black) has key parallels with the case for all-girl schools, but perhaps it’s this new face of segregation that would encourage racist attitudes. With reification of race, this is an affirmation of fundamental, ontological difference… in your words, “doesn’t it tell the black students that they’re not good enough to cut it with everyone else[?]”
I’ll play devils advocate here and say, theres christian schools, jewish schools and private schools, esl schools and so forth, they’ve been around forever and will continue to, since ones religious and one’s culture – I suppose it’s two in the same, I suppose it could be mind over matter to – this is different so it’s gotta be better and ill like it, which makes the student possibly preform better, who knows.
No where in this article was Africentric math explained.
What……I mean…Just what the fuck? Just fucking kill yourselves overthere.
LOL. Thanks, that’s that’s real mature.