N.S. educator proposes all-black school
Last Updated Fri, 28 Apr 2006 07:38:29 EDT
CBC News
A black educator in Halifax suggests a school exclusively for black students will help them thrive.
Wade Smith, vice-principal at St. Patrick's High School, said the education system is failing black students.
"Putting forward the notion of a black school is something that people might not be comfortable with because it suggests that things aren't working. Then I think you have to look at the possibility of a black school as something positive, that's good for our culture and good for our people," he said.
This week, the Halifax Regional School Board heard that it is still failing to fully handle the needs of African-Nova Scotian students.
The board's African-Nova Scotian advisory committee found that students and parents often feel picked on or isolated at their schools. They also say there is not enough diversity among teachers and administrators.
The minister for African-Nova Scotian Affairs, Barry Barnet, said the idea of moving black students into another school strikes him as a step backwards.
"I don't believe that a segregated school is necessarily the kind of solution that may create a positive learning environment," Barnet said.
Barnet said this department will not consider the change at this time.
Of the thousands of black Nova Scotians he's met, the minister added, no one has ever asked for a separate school. But Smith said at this point, drastic action may be the only way to help black students succeed.
They’ve had numerous reports and years to get it right, but the Halifax regional school board is still not a welcoming place for African-Nova Scotian students, parents or teachers, according to an advisory committee.
Students and parents often feel isolated, alienated and picked on in their own schools, Doug Sparks, the board’s designated African-Nova Scotian representative and chairman of the African-Nova Scotian advisory committee, told his board colleagues Wednesday evening.
And the ranks of teachers and senior administrators are still not diverse enough, the committee found.
"There’s a heightened environment of disrespect for learners (and) parents within the board, attitudes that we are asking for more than everyone else," Mr. Sparks said in presenting Actions Speak Louder than Words.
"The reality is that the results that we are seeing in regards to our African-Nova Scotian learners reflect that they are receiving less than (everyone else)."
The report follows the 1994 Black Learners Advisory Committee report to the province, the advisory committee’s own 2002 report to the board and a 2003 report by Robert Upshaw, all of which detailed the challenges faced by black students and parents in an education system they feel still doesn’t embrace them.
The report makes 25 recommendations about how black students, parents, teachers and other staff members can feel more empowered and be more successful within and without the school system.
Things like sensitivity training, recruitment and promotion of African-Nova Scotian staff and a comprehensive review of student support workers were either only partially addressed or forgotten.
The main recommendation is to reinstate the board’s race relations department it axed in 2003.
The report also calls for building better relationships between the board and African-Nova Scotian communities, addressing the disproportionate amount of discipline meted out against black students, special support in literacy and numeracy for black kids and a greater commitment to employment equity, including hiring an employment equity officer to recruit more minorities to board positions.
"I know in the African-Nova Scotian community there is still a fear of approaching the school or being involved in the school that I think we need to take that little extra step to help develop that relationship between the board, the school and parents and learners," Mr. Sparks said.
In-school suspensions and alternative means of discipline should be the norm, instead of sending kids home when they become disruptive, he said. A more Afro-centric approach to activities such as graduation in grades 6, 9 and 12 or having culturally appropriate videos for loan to parents on things like helping your kids with homework would also help improve black students’ success, he said.
"When parents get empowered, the children get empowered and then they buy into that."
Board members had few questions after Mr. Sparks’s 60-minute-plus presentation, but Timberlea-Prospect member Deborah Brunt said the board’s own student survey, which was also released Wednesday evening, appears to contradict what the committee found.
In fact, the board’s survey appears to support the advisory committee’s contentions. On many of the survey’s questions about school atmosphere, black students rated their experiences more negatively than students overall. In response to statements such as "Racism is not a problem at my school" or "I am treated the same as others at school regardless of my race or ethnicity", African-Nova Scotian kids reported a lower level of satisfaction.
Posted: Sun 30 Apr 2006 16:32 Post subject: Black demands for segregation
Did you ever notice now Asian parents never demand segregation or "role models" of their own ethnicity from the public schools? They just want good teachers and good schools, regardless of the ancestry of the teachers and administrators.
Joined: 05 Apr 2006 {Posts: 274 } Location: Chatsworth, CA
Posted: Sun 30 Apr 2006 17:10 Post subject:
Quote:
Did you ever notice now Asian parents never demand segregation or "role models" of their own ethnicity from the public schools? They just want good teachers and good schools, regardless of the ancestry of the teachers and administrators.
Actually, it isn't clear from the story whether or not black parents are demanding segregation. Some of the administrators are, but this raises the whole question of whether these officials are really trying to help black students or increase their personal fiefdoms.
Many of the Chinese kids that I grew up with did in fact go to special Chinese academies after school and during vacations. Here in CA there are private schools that have majority Asian student bodies and emphasize a particular Asian language and culture.
I agree that there has never been, to my knowledge, a case where Asian parents demanded that the government subsidize their separate cultural institutions. Chinese Americans in Mississippi did withdraw from the public educational system to establish their own private schools in order to avoid sending their children to majority black segregated schools. Once the Chinese were no longer subjected to Jim Crow, they joined the mainstream white community.
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