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Featured Expert Dr. Afua Cooper Black-Focused Schools: The Time is Now By Dr. Afua Cooper Keynote Presentation Canadian Alliance of Black Educators 25th Anniversary Celebration - May 2005 The revival of the Black-focused schools debate in the African Canadian community and beyond has caused many to ponder the usefulness of Black-focused schools. What is that? Some asked. BFS is an idea whose time has come. We can defined it to mean an institution in which Black children are taught the usual branches of arts and sciences but with these studies grounded in an Afrocentric context. But the BFS is more than the teaching of the three R's. It is also where the nurturing and mentoring of the students form an essential component of their learning, and it is also a space where parents, educators, and community come together to control the education of their young. Non-Blacks who are committed to the education of Black children can also be part of BFS, as well as non-Black students who welcome being in a BFS environment. Why the debate? Because of recent statistics which reveals that Black children, especially high school students, especially the males, have upward of a 40% drop-out rate. Put another way, four out of ten Black children do no finish high school. They have either dropped out or forced out. A 'hostile' learning environment (this can be defined in multiple ways-prejudiced teachers, zero tolerance policy etc) has been blamed for this crisis. Forty percent is high which ever way you look at it. The touted solution to this is BFS. And I agree. The stats should frighten us while at the same time motivate us to use all our resources to rescue each and everyone of our children. The African Canadian community has always found a solution for the education of its young. When in 1850, the Ontario legislature enacted the Separate School Act, a consequence of which was the restricting of education for Black children. Black people responded to this crisis in two ways. First, they founded their own schools which in many instances proved superior to the white schools, and secondly they launched lawsuits against school boards and municipalities. We, in this time and space can do the same things and more. We have an even larger pool of intellectual capital than African Canadians in the nineteenth century. George C. Fraser, author and motivational speaker, defines Intellectual Capital to be "the estimated dollar value of the formal education and professional training that black people have received over the last three decades." Speaking specifically about the African American experience, he notes that between 1968 and 2000 Blacks spent 320 billion hours in the classroom, and 390 billions hours in professional training. If this estimated 710 billion hours were valued at ten dollars an hours, the intellectual capital of blacks would be worth 7,000,000,000,000 (seven trillion dollars). Yet sadly, African Americans return less than 1% of their intellectual capital to their communities. Intellectual capital is nothing if it is not shared. It is good to use our intellectual capital for our own individual progress but it is not good enough. As Fraser states: too many of us are focused on individual gains and not the elevation of our entire community. Research still needs to be done on the intellectual capital of African Canadian (for the last three decades) but one thing is sure. Like our American counterpart, this current group of Blacks (if we use Fraser's timeline from 1968 to 2000) is the most educated and trained group of Blacks in the history of African Canada. But do we put back as much in the community as we could? How many of us use our skills, education, and training solely for the benefit of ourselves? One thing is certain and it is this: if we put our monies, minds, skills, and education together as a community we would not have the frightening statistics of 40% I am not here to distribute blame but to say that we need to better deploy our intellectual capital. Our history has shown that we have done more with less. Forty percent is crisis proportion. With this kind of stats what does the future hold for us as a community? This is where BFS come in-not as the only and ultimate solution but one of the critical solutions. Throughout the past 400 years education has been seen and used as one of the main planks in the platform for Black uplift. Henry Bibb, abolitionist, educator, and the founder of Canada's first Black newspaper, The Voice of the Fugitive announces in the 15 January 1851 editorial of his paper. We regard the education of colored people in North America as being one of the most important measures connected with the destiny of our race. By it we can be strengthened and elevated-without it we shall be ignorant, weak, and degraded. By it we shall be clothe with a power which shall enable us to arise from degradation and command respect from the whole civilized world: without it, she shall ever be imposed upon, oppressed and enslaved; not that we are more stupid than others would be under the same circumstances, indeed very few races of men have the corporal ability to survive, under the same physical and mental depression that the colored race have to endure, and still retain their manhood. For Bibb, education would be the great panacea-one that would uplift Black people and allow them to take an equal place among the peoples and nations of the world. And up to a certain degree, we still have that same belief today in the power and possibilities of education. But education can only work for us as African Canadians if we ourselves deploy it to work for us. In other words, if we are in control of or share in the system that educate us. Instituting BFS does not mean we will withdraw all Black children from the public schools. No! but we will hold these schools accountable. As taxpayers, Black parents and school supporters put their monies to support public education. Therefore we have a right to hold the school board and other institutions responsible for the education of our children accountable. We have a voice and ought to use that voice to ensure that our children remain in school and obtain their educational qualifications. Black parents overtime have sued schoolboards and municipalities when their children's education has been compromised. BFS should be pursued as an option, an alternative. A parallel system. . Around megacity Toronto there should be at least ten such schools staffed by competent, committed and caring Black educators and non-Blacks who are committed to Black education. In a crucial way the current debate frustrates me because it goes on without those at the forefront seeming to have a historical sense about the evolution and practice of BFS in Toronto, at least. Part of this is because we as a community do not adequately record our struggles for posterity. Hence the historical vacuum. Let me talk briefly about an example of a Black-Focused institution in Toronto. During 1985, Anthropologist Jackie Wilson (who was my TA at the University of Toronto) engaged me in discussions about a school for Black high school students. Even then the drop-out rate was high and Wilson was concerned. She was a very-qualified educator and had been involved in setting up schools and programs for Black high school students and adult learners in the United States. Soon, Veronica Sullivan became part of these discussions. I remember Jackie, Veronica, and I meeting at a West Indian restaurant on Eglinton Ave West. Finally, in 1986, under the leadership of Wilson a Black focused school was opened at the DB Hood school in the then City of York. The York School Board provided the space. Qualified Black teachers were hired but Wilson, Sullivan, and Byron Stephenson co-ordinated the school. And please note, it was a school, not a program. Credit must be given to Jackie Wilson for negotiating with the York School Board to have the school designated as an Alternative School and not a program. The student body was largely African Canadians who had dropped out of high schools or were having problems within their regular school. At the Black-Focused school they earned credits, received their high school diplomas. Sullivan informs me that the curriculum was Afrocentric while at the same time, the school fulfilled the credit requirements of the school board. One of the connections that Wilson and her team made was with The TYP at the UT and with the local community colleges so that students could go on to university or colleges. After 18 months, the York Board said they need the space at D.B.Hood, and the Black-focused school moved to George Harvey Collegiate. Though the students still received their credits, the school was down-graded and named a 'program.' The school remained at George Harvey for a year and then closed. I asked Veronica Sullivan what led to the demise of the school. Her take on it was not because of hostility from the school board and the larger white community (though that was present) but the main reason was in-fighting among Blacks. Many members, including highly-placed individuals, attacked the BFS as segregationist and that the students would be mal-educated, felt that standards were lowered, and so forth. Some Blacks even questioned if the teachers were qualified enough. All of this opposition despite the alarming statistics of Black drop-out in the regular schools, and the fact that the Black-focused school was producing positive results. We hear a similar opposition from members of the Black community in this modern debate. We hear the same voices of doom: "lowering of standards," "segregation," "ghettoization." Let me say, that in my opinion these are manifestations of an inferiority complex. A lack of belief in ourselves. Or what David Walker, the African American freedom fighter called "servile deceit." What is servile deceit? For Walker it is when people, in his example, oppressed Black people act against themselves. Walker gives a troubling example of servile deceit. in which slave traders travelled with a group of enslaved Africans through the Carolina country. They were e taking the slave-captives to sell at the slave market. Somehow the captives managed to overpower the slave traders and free themselves. However, one slave, instead of being happy at her liberation became alarmed. She then made her way back to the plantation from which she originally came, informed her owners of what transpired. The whites then gathered up the militia and proceeded to hunt down and recapture the slaves. Servile deceit is when a person is conditioned by those who oppress him or her to act against his/her own interests. Sections of our community support BFS. Others do not. Yet these naysayers do not question Black-focused churches or Black-focused prisons or jails. Why the opposition to BFS as being segregated schools when in fact we have a long tradition of "segregated schools in Canada." For example we have Muslim schools, Sikh schools, Jewish schools, Bahai schools, Catholic schools, and other separate schools based on religious principles. We also have schools separated along gender lines-girls schools and boys schools. Why then is the idea of BFS so puzzling to some members of the African Canadian community? We have current models and templates for such an endeavour as the Black-focused school. Here are three examples of Black focused school operating within the GTA. Umoja Learning Circle was founded by educator Anyika Tafari. As the name of the school reveals, this is an Afro-centric environment. Here at Umoja the seven principles of Kwanza are used in everyday activities and taught to the children. Much emphasis is placed on the arts and mathematics, and on environmental sciences. Black history and heritage infuse every aspect of the curriculum. Higher Marks Educational Institute. Founded by educator Ron Blake, HM is mainly a tutorial service. Classes are offered after school and on weekends. Thousands of Black students have passed through HM and Ron Blake must be recognized as a pioneer in Black education. The curriculum at HM is also Afro-centric in focus, and the tone of learning is set as soon as one walks into the building. Along the corridors of which are hung pictures, paintings, and sayings of great Black men and women. The Saturday African Heritage Program run by educator Veronica Sullivan. This program has been taught by Veronica for over 20 years now. The standard is very high. Veronica is one of those Black educators who love Black children and is making full use of her intellectual capital. She is committed, caring and nurtures and mentors her students. These are other BFS such as the Shiloh Christian Academy in Brampton. The Toronto District School Board entered the BFS debate by declaring that it will not support or fund BFS. When the TDSB responded thus, a class action suit should have been launched against it by the Black community. Because when it made such a declaration it was not taking any responsibility for the high drop out rate of the miseducation of Black children. In the early 1980s, a crisis and a tragedy occurred at the Toronto Sick Children's Hospital. Babies were dying without any visible causes. Murder was suspected. Naturally, the public, not to mention the parents of the dead babies, clamoured accountability. The suspicion fell on medical personnel, especially nurses. Finally, one nurse Susan Nelles was hauled before an inquiry, charged for murdering the babies. Though Nurse Nelles was eventually cleared of all wrongdoing, the fact remained that the hospital was held accountable for the loss of life. Likewise, if a dentist begins to performed botched operations on his clients he will eventually be held accountable by lawsuits launched against him and might even lose his licence to practice. What kind of servile deceit are we engaged in when we continue to see 40% of our children come back from school sick and dying? Not so the TDSB. Under its auspices Black children have been denied quality education, been kicked out of school, and its response has been to wash its hands of the matter. The Black community must demand a better response from the TDSB. At the same time, Black school supporters should not be asking the TDSB to launch BFS. We have more than enough competent educators and administrators to do so ourselves. In many respects, the debate is irrelevant. We know the problems and we also know the solutions. Why can't we go ahead, put our minds together, use our intellectual capital and create BFS. The time is now. To wait is to court peril. The question is not whether we need Black-Focused schools; it is when. Our children and their children will curse us if we do not act now. Professor Afua Cooper taught Canadian History at the University of Toronto in 2005-2006. She is now an independent scholar, writer and performer. Her works include Copper Woman and The Hanging of Angelique, which is published in English and French Versions. You too can be a featured expert! Send your work and biography to [email protected] to be the next featured expert! Copyright 2005-2007 Gary Pieters, All Rights Reserved. Launched on February 1, 2005. Most Recently Updated on July 17, 2007. This site is revised and updated regularly to serve as an attractive, accessible and usable e-learning environment. Check in regularly for updated information. Academic Content and Photographic Images From This Site May Not Be Used or Reproduced In Any Form Without The Written Consent Of The Author Of This Homepage.