Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Toronto finds a circuitous route back to segregation?

This is fucking awful.
Posted by at

7 comments:

Ηυσεβιος Μαρκος said...

interesting...mind you I can see this picking up steam and making yet another schoolboard.

Every few years we go through this, we just had massive layoffs in ottawa and toronto in the public board, a closure of the catholic board which will inevitably be followed by mass hirings that are unsustainable long-term... but now we're talking about more schools. Sorry to sound like a textbook conservative but we need to fix the current public system from top to bottom, not create new publicly funded systems in addition, forgetting for a moment the segregationist elements this entails which makes it reprehensible and regressive of itself.

if there's that much demand for this school make it private with a glut of bursaries.

6:58 pm
Oliver Brackenbury said...

I wouldn't say it's that conservative a view to have my man. Lefty, righty, whatever...I think it's just common sense to think that fixing the current system is far better than making a new one along a segregationist model which claims to be better but is actually built upon terribly racist ideas (i.e. a black teacher can naturally teach black students better)...

For the first time in my life I honestly found myself asking "What has happened to my country?".

12:24 am
Oliver Brackenbury said...

I forgot to mention, there was a phone poll on City TV which came out against the government funding this asinine idea 2000 to 400. As is often the case, the government seems to get all caught up trying to appease special interest groups while forgetting the majority.

12:25 am
Shawn M. said...

"What has happened to my country?"

There's a question that sounds melodramatic in nature, but one I've nonetheless asked many times after the Conservatives were elected and asked to form a minority government.

Regardless of your opinion of our being in Afghanistan, it's a dramatic departure from previous, stated Canadian ideals when it comes to sovereignty and diplomacy. But then, Prime Minister Harper (who, I suspect, wishes he were President Harper) supported George W. Bush and wanted us to help invade Iraq. He doesn't really understand the fuss over the death penalty. He dubbed global warming "a socialist plot."

Obviously, I agree that reinforcing cultural and racial boundaries is unhealthy. Hey, black kids, why are you even trying to fit into Whitey Western Culture? It's not for you! You need to go and learn about Rosa Parks and MLK and that's just about it.

3:52 am
Shawn M. said...

Oh, I did kind of blur the lines between conservatism and this issue with my last comment. Wondering about my nation reminded me of all of those aspects of the conservatism movement in Canada that scare the crap out of me. Insofar as black schools goes (I did like that one of the champions of this cause said that 'white kids are welcome to!' because that's going to happen), I actually think this is radically left. You can go so far in either direction (as neoconservatism has demonstrated for us) that you will not only depart from the principles of liberalism or what-have-you, but in fact end up supporting things contrary to said beliefs.

3:56 am
Anonymous said...

I'm not thrilled with the idea, but I'm not dead-set against it either. I find it really similar to the idea of charter schools, which has worked really well in Alberta so far.

Basically charter schools are non-profit public schools that are 'chartered' to allow for greater autonomy in the curriculum. Some schools focus on science, some on arts, some on women only (Calgary Girls' School bills itself as 'All female school with focus on learning about women's history and perspectives' which sounds A LOT like this black school plan) and some on native students.

On one hand, I think this plan could provide students with something they've been missing. We (and I include myself in this) tend to push this "one size fits all" and forget that people in general, and students specifically, are not one size fits all. Neither is history, for that matter. On the other hand, they are going to have to work hard to walk a fine, fine line between promoting black history and culture and an attitude of inclusiveness on one hand and segregationism on the other.

9:19 am
Oliver Brackenbury said...

Ah...that's fair to say and I do appreciate how one size does not fit all (what with my having been through the Gifted program). But it still just feels too much like they're avoiding the underlying problems which cause the high drop out rate.

Plus, with shit like this, I don't know how anyone could complain about our lack of a cohesive national identity. It won't be too cohesive when we break up our population by colour, size and shape.

5:55 pm

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)