Africentric schools could be the key to success for a英文资料.pdfVIP

The test Africentric schools could be the key to success for a generation at risk. (Just dont call it segregation.) Andrew Wallace The city had been embroiled in a racially charged public debate for months leading up to that landmark night last winter. At 6 p.m. more than 200 people crowded into the Toronto District School Boards headquarters to offer passionate pleas both for and against a controversial idea thatd deeply divided Canadas largest metropolis, in particular its black community. For some, it represented real equity, an attempt to achieve a place for their children in a system thatd historically forgotten them. For others, it represented nothing but race, a new form of segregation that went against everything their forefathers spent their lives fighting for. Either way, they were there to bear witness to history, as on that night, January 29, 2008, the school trustees cast their deciding vote on the proposal to open an Africentric school in Toronto, publicly stating their position on what has become the third rail of educational policy-the racially separated school. During the public submissions that preceded the trustees vote, many concerned citizens rose up and spoke out. Donna Harrow, the activist whod brought the proposal to the board the year before, urged trustees not to be taken in by misinformation about the schools purpose. Her colleague, Angela Wilson, argued that, despite the rhetoric that dogged the idea, a blackfocused school was not about segregation but self-determination, while Winston LaRose, the executive director of the Jane Finch Concerned Citizens Organization, charged that Toronto schools dont represent the diversity you so much talk about. But others in the crowd fired back, crying out that black-focused schools did, indeed, represent a new form of segregation and were a half-baked solution to the problems faced by black youth. They alleged the school would further marginalize black children, not empower the