Lots of commenters are critical of the school described here. Black people can’t win for losing. We want them to want to be in our majority white schools although we won’t allow too many of them in. But, we don’t want them to set up their own schools that might be independent of white influence.
30
America has always been and will always be segregated. Chasing integration has been a disaster for what was, pre 1960's, a strong black community.
9
I remember a time when we all protested, walked out of class and fought for the right to be one. For everyone to be treated equally. 40 years on we are more segregated than I ever remember us being before. This week the “eyewitness” account of a blue eyed devil killing for hate had everyone frothing at the mouth at white people. We know how that turned out. I can only imagine the indoctrination the 15 year old received about how evil all white people are, so effective that when it came time to help find the killer of her sister, she grabbed the most convenient evil she has been taught about. I do not want a world where the betterment of one class or race is at the expense of another. Stop the divisiveness. I pray that we will see a time when we are all going to be looked upon as one. However, if we ever achieve that I will probably be long gone.
19
Tribalism. I thought we were trying to move away from this type of narrow thinking. If we want to survive as a nation we should want to see less Madrasas, less Yeshivas, less Catholic schools, less eurocentrism, less afrocentrism, less identity politics.
21
the black athena shows that Greeks had dark skin. the pyramids of Egypt prove that greatness is in every African American. teach these youth to be proud and they will follow the doctors and be there for the patients that need them. racism comes from segregation but takes many shapes. fear of strangers, xenophobia, is not evil.
1
Just wondering if these Afro-centric schools ALL are private. Therein lies the rub... $$$$$. IF you do not have money and live in a "good" zip code, you have less access to a "good" education, regardless of skin color.
6
Segregation and insularity has been a boon for Whites and Asians time for black folks to give it a try.
6
To each his own. I believe segregation should not be forced although diversity is more interesting than the same of any race. Anything is better than home schooling and the lack of socialization with that situation.
1
If I sent my child to an Afrocentric school & they used Beyonce and that Bill Gates quote as a measuring stick for Black beauty and affirmation I'd dis-enroll them IMMEDIATELY. How do you promote Afrocentricity while co-signing on equating success w/White Capitalist or even BLACK versions of that. The politics are wrong on that alone.
I've been really looking for a African-Centered school to monetarily support and I know for a fact CHARTER schools are not it. Charter schools defund already struggling schools, which tend to be schools BLACK children attend in NYC. We do not need Black dipped versions of WHITE school settings. We need AFRICAN-centered education for our children to be Self determined children who grow into a self determined NATION.
5
Sorry I am for embracing diversity and tolerance of people of different races, religions, national origin and gender than one's own. If we do not inculcate the vales of equality of all humans at a tender age when kids are in school we are going to create a society that is not comfortable with people of other races. This will create fear and distrust and stereotyping.
It is quite interesting that just this afternoon I had a conversation with a former colleague who is troubled by his son's preference towards a mono racial American society with intolerance of other races. A little later today, I overheard conversation about how some recent overseas residents of the USA don't speak a word of English and how that is improper.
Africa is a place of a rich culture and so is Asia and as Americans we should all celebrate diversity and distinctness. But encouraging state supported segregation is counter productive and will create a lack of understanding of each other and the trust that can be built from working with each other. As adults we have to work with people of all races, all religions, all genders and with mutual respect and harmony and if we are not beginning to interact with a diverse group at a young age when our character and moral values are getting shaped, how can we as adults be all of a sudden model tolerant and collegial persons in harmony and accepting of the rest.
Presidential election of 2016 has divided families, friends and communities. Time to unite again.
13
Does anyone on this forum really know whether and to what degree the two centuries of slavery and seven or eight decades of Jim Crow affect the way we see and treat each other today? I honestly don’t. But I drfinitely know it’s not always easy for whites like me to acknowledge that the atrocities of our forebears need to be remembered, not to blame us for crimes we did not commit. We are only responsible for how we act now. But that includes how we respond when those among us who choose to assert their identity in the face of what they perceive to be injustice as a means of cultivating solidarity. I say those who do so are exercising their rights of free association. Would an integrated school system and (by extension) society that could somehow manage to honor the differences among its individuals and their backgrounds be preferable to what we see in NYC schools? Absolutely. We’re just not there yet. Until we are, I am loathe to deny people the right to find strength in their own common experiences as long as it doesn’t feed itself on denigrating others. America is only as great as its capacity to balance the rights of individuals to exercise their freedom without interfering with the freedom of others.
8
This caught my attention. I just spent a week dog-sitting for my son while he and his wife traveled in Brooklyn. One day, leaving the Neue Galerie, Upper East Side, Manhattan we walked to the subway at 86th Street & Lexington Ave, as all the area private schools were discharging their mostly white students from privileged families made me understand what is truly wrong in America. The rampant inequality. The children featured in this article need anything that will make them successful in dealing with that rampant injustice, which will only grow worse.
10
I suspect it would not be hard to write this article with more "balance" - the many and powerful reasons why this kind of segregation is ultimately a bad idea are evident to everyone, but no one with real stature who feels that way is included in the story, So it feels a little forced. My first reaction was, what a crying shame. I'm white.
18
I've never understood the appeal of school integration to black Americans.
True, school integration in 1954 led to a civil rights movement which improved the social status of blacks especially in public accommodations, but it also severely hindered the academic performance of black students. Why? After integration, blacks students were now taught and evaluated by whites who didn't want them in white schools and believed they were inferior students. Since nearly all school age children don't have the maturity and confidence to look past the harsh judgment of their teachers and principals, they faltered. In 2nd grade if a teacher tells you that you're a lousy student, you will probably believe him and act accordingly. The white schools had better books and buildings, but also teachers who didn't expect black students could succeed. Indeed, to this day, the most successful black academics attended historically black colleges and universities despite having worse entering credentials than blacks at prestigious white schools.
Black teachers don't need to tell black kids to love their hair or skin. They simply need to teach a subject and believe that black students can learn. In teaching, expectations and support matter a lot to young people (of every race.) In fact it's probably all that matters.
16
Hey all I’m saying is that if a school in New York had children hold up their hands in a white power symbol it would be considered racist. But when an all black school raises their hands in a black power salute it’s ok. Creating schools focused on a certain race is no better than segregation. If anything, failing to teach children about European history and instead focusing on African or Hispanic or even Asian could be detrimental to the children’s knowledge. Nobody teaches white history because it would be considered racist. But when people teach black history it becomes a problem when they neglect the accomplishments of other races.
27
Just another example of the racism that exists inside Black communities.
Take these statements from the article:
“I love myself!” the group of mostly black children shouted in unison. “I love my hair, I love my skin!” When it was time to settle down, their teacher raised her fist in a black power salute."
Parenting While Black,
“When I'm looking at integration, I’m actually seeing it as a threat to resources being visited on your child if they don't fall within a certain subset.”
That has meant sending dozens of middle-school students to South Africa for six weeks, and forgoing strict discipline in favor of strong mental health services.
expressly Afrocentric classes
those supporting this type of schooling would howl if a public school had a "white power salute" or a group Parenting While White. What if a white said school integration was a threat to resources? or said black kids should visit africa and were mentally unhealthy? God forbid someone said they wanted their kids to have expressly Eurocentric classes.
So to all those that claim only whites are racists, re-read the article and change the ethnic indicators.. if you don't see the racism you are the problem.
37
"Afrocentric" is not the correct term for these schools. Do they teach Cheikh Anta Diop, Patrice Lumumba, the manuscripts of Timbuktu, movies by Sembene Ousmane or Wole Soyinka's plays? I think not.
10
It would be nice if everybody was willing to send their children to an integrated school. Of course, it also would be nice if we all had rainbows and unicorns. The history of public education post-Brown shows that whenever a public school reaches more than 25-30% African-American enrollment, white parents pull their kids from the system in droves. What are black parents supposed to do - beg white parents to send their kids to school with black kids, or set up their own schools in the manner that they think best?
12
Do whatever works, as long as it works.
3
What does "Afrocentrism" mean in each of these schools? Few people ( I hope) would have a problem with covering the omitted contributions of Kingdom of Aksum or treating Roman and Egyptian empires as multi-ethnic, which they obviously were. But naming a school "Little Sun People" suggests other ideas under the banner of Afrocentrism. The name of the school itself references Leonard Jeffries' absurd racist melanin theory, which grants superiority to black people (the sun people) based on the higher melanin in their skin and inferiority to white people (the ice people). The author of this article conveniently omits this fact, as well as any consideration of the breadth covered by the term "Afrocentrism."
19
"I know I am black; You know you are white; I'm proud of my black skin; You are proud of your white." 1980, "The Specials", Song title: "Why?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8PoqDzQ5qs and https://www.google.com/search?sa=X&biw=1536&bih=722&q=the+specials+why%3F&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgFuLUz9U3MDTPjS9T4tFP1zcsNjAtrjI1LNcSy0620s8tLc5M1k8sKsksLrEqzs9LL37E6M8t8PLHPWEpt0lrTl5jdODCoVBIjYvNNa8ks6RSSIaLVwphjwaDFDcXgssDAJU4n4WFAAAA&ved=0ahUKEwjk8c7iqN_fAhXDMHwKHZuZAzQQri4IgQE We're all proud of our ethnicity and physical characteristics, so if white people want to have their own "Eurocentric" schools so be it, it's not racist no matter what other politically correct(racists) say.
1
Isn't segregation perhaps illegal, or at least immoral? People have been telling me that for the last 50 or 60 years, and I believed them. What happened? Does this mean Asians and Jews can establish their own race based schools? Ok for white southerners to do same?
15
Instilling pride? Yes, indeed. This older white guy is good with this program with the assumption that it is not coupled with teaching hatred of white or other ethnic groups. (The same holds true for those groups in return.) That said, reading this article, it seems that these children are getting a well rounded education as well as a healthy personal boost. I recall it being said some years ago that part of the problem with black "upward mobility" is that as a lot of role models who lived in traditionally African-American communities moved up and moved out, it left a cultural void of examples of successful people. If this helps fill that void, instills respect of self and others as well as pride, and shows these kids that their only limits are their abilities and desires to achieve their goals, then consider me a supporter.
5
"With the city’s approval, any principal can adopt a black-centric curriculum — with black teachers, and a focus on black culture in literature, history and art classes — as long as the school complies with state educational standards."
Is that really legal? For a public school system to enact a policy to hire only black teachers based on the color of their skin and not the quality of their teaching (or as a wiser person once said, "the content of their character")?
27
I study high performing integrated high schools precisely because of the concerns voiced by black parents in this article--kids of color are often marginalized in large traditional public schools that systematically stratify opportunity.
Intentionally integrated themed schools can be incredibly successful only if they ensure not just "access" to opportunity, but that students are actually in the right classes (a strong curriculum) and have enriching learning experiences outside of school that connect to what they are learning in school.
I am sympathetic to black parents who look for new ways of educating their kids and who are savvy enough to see that the old ways do not work for some kids. But if children are happy and learning, and if test scores indicate that they are scoring high on state assessments, then why not try new approaches? An advisory board with people like the black pediatrician mentioned here can help educators and parents (especially those who have not been to college) to understand if the school is providing both the academics and the means to develop the socioemotional skills that will be required of successful young adults and citizens of their communities. .
4
What strikes me as interesting is how many comments conflate the idea of Afro- centricity and segregation. Someone please point me to where in the article it stated these schools only accepted black pupils.
The purpose of these schools is to educate students in black culture, exactly like a French or Chinese immersion school. The howls of self segregation come from the crowd who so de-value Black culture that they can't fathom a world where anyone *but* Black people would find such a school of any utility. They believe that only Black people would want a school with Black teachers where one can learn about Black history and Black leaders.
These same people have problem with French, Chinese, Jewish, Catholic, or German schools. They would gladly send their child to one; they value those cultures. Their "concern" about segregation and mal-adjusted youth is belied by their belief that Black culture is intrinsically worthless, and Black teachers are less able. Period.
Otherwise, these schools don't discriminate -- they have Latinx population, and perform above average. If segregation is a problem you truly want to fix then please send your children...
10
White supremacy is rampant in this country. African Americans are still routinely lynched both by cops and so-called Progressives. Don’t even get me started on Putin’s puppet. Any time a person of color tries to excercise basic civil rights and freedoms the jailhouse cell door is slammed shut. Life in this country is a nightmare.
4
Segregating a school for integration sake is not the perfect answer. I believe there is some merrit to focus more on the quality of the school than its racial mix.
in the perfect world it would be nice if we had both, but given the choice of high quality schools that are not perfectly integrated or schools that are not fully integrated but of higher quality society, including our black citizens, is better off to chose the later.
Unfortunately it unusually is the white schools rhat produce better results. Spend less time and money on integration and divert it to upgrading the quality of schools in the black neighborhoods.
Decrease the class size in black schools and pay up for the highest quality of teachers for the black schools.
1
This is a very interesting article , since it raises some important issues. The primary purpose of an Afrocentric education appears to be a desire to instill pride within Black children by making them aware of Black culture and avoiding self hate. But should public schools, funded by taxpayers, be the primary vehicle instilling racial or ethnic pride among Black people? And will Black children be more inclined to have confidence in themselves by a knowledge of Black culture or by having a sound education which allows them to compete for highly skilled jobs based on STEM?
During the 1960s and 1970s, I would have embraced the idea of Afrocentric schools. But as society has become more diverse, I am beginning to wonder whether an Afrocentric education in public schools truly helps Black people to exist in a multi-cultural society, Obviously, the contributions of Black people should be taught in public schools. But i would be more comfortable if Black people could fund private schools which were Afrocentric.
8
What a wonderful well written piece about a topic that needs more attention. I have attended New York City Public schools since I was in 2nd grade. From Brooklyn,Queens & Harlem, I have expirence how segregated New York City school are and how they lack the funding and proper curriculum for students of color. They attempt to get you in and out by dismissing students that still need proper attention. I went on to a predominately white University and realized how the education differentiated from those of my white schoolmates. Something needs to be done about these segregated schools that Brown vs Board did not help with integration but just made things worst.
3
Its ironic that a "liberal" city like New York has deeply segregated schools and that some Black parents are choosing Afrocentric schools as alternatives to integration. I wonder what Martin Luther king would have thought about Afrocentric school? And since the majority of Black children will not attend Afrocentric schools, how will that affect their education. In any event, it is good that some Black parents are seeking what they believe is a better education for their children. A good parent may still be the best asset for children to achieve a solid education.
3
@tmonk677 We'll never know what Dr. King would have thought because somebody shot him.
2
What I got from this your article that we have lost ground when it comes to race relations.I grew up in Bedford Stuyvesant in the mid sixties and attended Boys High School. Known as "The High", at that time it was well integrated, my friends and classmates were African American ,Latino,Irish,Polish and Italian.My African American friends were admitted to Harvard,Brandeis and Columbia and other institutions based on our academic achievements. We became physicians, Lawyers, an Assistant secretary of HUD. That experience gave me the opportunity to learn and appreciate other cultures. At home I learned about Marcus Garvey, Marian Anderson,Basie and Ellington.We discussed the contributions of Adam Clayton Powell and Charles Drew.My parents did not tell me that I could be the next black Nelson Rockefeller, that I should be the best me. I chose to work in sanitation, to be the best.I have felt the sting of racism in my life but that has never deterred me.No matter where one chooses to send their child if you not fully involved and invested success will be limited.
15
All very well and good.
Some Greek families send the children to Greek parochial schools and pay for it. Some Jewish families send their kids to yeshivas and pay for it. Some Catholic (and other) families send their kids to Catholic schools and pay for it.
If a public school somewhere had their students clenching their fists and proudly declaiming admiration for their white skin, most people would feel how --?
23
i admire the sentiment, but the preponderance of research indicates
Where is today’s Malcolm? Where are today’s Panthers? It is time for a more sophisticated bus boycott, a more emphatic message than that on the steps of the Sacramento Statehouse. Stern, strong internal critique as once offered by the Nation of Islam, but given today’s politics, perhaps not Islam. The jury is in. The verdict is that ONLY from within will the sons and daughters of the Founding Brothers and Sister claim their inheritance. Do not expect ANYthing from the government...from your sympathetic neighbors...from mealy mouthed politicians. Read James Baldwin to your children. Show them John Carlos. Not one child should be ignorant of Frederick Douglas. Period. Carpe diem!
4
@Mike Pod
I agree ,Beyonce is not responsible for educating our children we parents and grandparents, its our job to teach them our history.We are the griots.
1
What I think is important is for African-Americans to come up with their own plans and implement them. Only they know what they need to do and they should endeavor to do that. Simplistic and naive of me...perhaps.
2
I forget who wrote the words but someone else gets credit: “Segregation in America will only be over when nobody has to ask ‘what’s it like being black...’.”
And the only way to do it is for all kids to share the same experiences, to grow up ‘colorblind’.
I long for a generation of kids who don’t divide themselves by ethnicity or skin color or religion but by the unbreakables like age group.
I don’t care what you look like - you’re either my friend or not based on simple human qualities, excluding the paint job.
2
"Raised his hand in a black power salute"??
I have seen group leaders raise their hand in a fist when they wanted the group's attention. Anyone who sees it does the same, and the entire group quickly realizes that the time for individual conversations is over, and almost instantly quiets down and turns toward the leader. It is a VERY effective custom; I didn't realize it had anything to do with "black power saluting"! The groups I'm thinking of are pretty much lily-white. I doubt racial issues were on their minds. They had merely found a way to get a large groups attention very quickly.
2
My heart sings for these families. Empower yourselves, you deserve the very best.
6
These schools exist because African Americans feel they are getting short changed at other schools. Plain and simple!
There is nothing better than a school which is mindfully diverse in its student body and diverse in curriculum.
But if you don’t practice what you preach then this is what you get - a group of people trying to ensure they preserve their identity.
8
@M
Which identity African or American? BTW Africa is a continent NOT a nation so there is no African national identity.
how about underperforming versus performing? is that the identity they are trying to preserve?
or how about unmarried with lots of children they don't support? speaking ebonics? or just constantly seeing microaggression and slights when they are not catered too?
instead of trying to create another excuse to promote even more racism, these parents need to instill discipline at home and demand their kids continue it in school. Instill a need and a love of learning instead of a desire to hang out and make beats in the basement or loaf on a street corner.
The main problem for black children in schools is their parents and upbringing. If they refuse to pay attention in class and mommy blames the teacher, then the fail is mommies not the teachers.
7
@mike - Wow! You’ve managed to blame both Black people AND women for having been victims of racism and misogyny for hundreds of years! Nicely done!
3
"And on a recent Friday, it meant that Ember’s third and fourth graders were watching a clip of Beyoncé’s 2016 Super Bowl halftime performance. Tanequa Neale, Ember’s dean of culture, asked the students, “Does the song make me feel beautiful, or better about myself?”"
Is this really what is passing for education these days?
22
Afrocentric schools remind me of the language houses we used to have back at university where the students who wanted to learn the Spanish, French, Portuguese, language, culture, culinary arts lived together, spoke the language, and immersed themselves in their chosen culture.
Nonetheless, seems odd that the NYT describes these schools as alternatives to segregated schools, when they are in fact segregated by choice.
More of a linguistic issue than a policy issue.
8
I hope that one day we all get past our current obsession with race and gender that has totally distorted honest national discourse in this country.
Most of the time, education is anything but a feel-good process: Assimilating new information, or learning a new skill, can involve tedious, frustrating hours until you finally get it right.
It's great to understand and appreciate your heritage, whatever that may be. But having kids listen to Beyonce sing about Bill Gates isn't going to help them become Bill Gates. And implying that it may do so is a great disservice.
18
Let's be honest, schools are set up by and run for the benefit of parents.
My white parents liked the fact I was in a good private school, aimed at getting my to a good college. And they liked the moderate religious tone as well.
The parents of these black children are trying to find a way to improve what they experienced, using their kids.
That's okay, that's what all parents do. Try to replicate what worked, and improve what didn't.
If parents want their children to use their education energy to learn Albanian in a language immersion-program, go for it. I wouldn't want my kids to spend time in such a narrow linguistic parcel, but all new languages help us think, and if the results are positive (in terms of, yes, standardized tests and college admissions), then keep teaching Albanian.
If watching Beyonce somehow improves learning, or the parents believe that, that's what the kids will have to put up with.
For the long haul, just an opinion here, I'll bet you there's a greater satisfaction from acing a standardized test than singing along with pop stars. But I "voted" on that with my kid, and other parents will do what they think is best for theirs.
3
The more we allow our increasingly more diverse student body to be educated in ACADEMICALLY RIGOROUS *and* representative curricula, the more empowered they will be to go out in the world with a sense of confidence, pride, and belonging. It takes nothing from white people for these options to exist, but there are so many readers insisting this is "regressive." There are also frequent suggestions in these comments that Afrocentric means lacking rigor, which is racist. All of these "educated" readers who can't reconcile in their narrow minds how applying an Afrocentric lens does not mean students aren't learning traditional subjects. You can just as easily explore Huck Finn from Jim's perspective instead of Huck's, and with that intentional focus, what an incredible skill for children to learn how to compare contrasting perspectives and the importance of acknowledging competing narratives. Why not accompany a math lesson with its history in Egypt, Islam, China Greece. Or explore scientific advancements originating in non-white cultures around the world, the way we go out of our way to emphasize Ben Franklin's discovery of electric currents? Schools in this country are filled with white washed, male-oriented narratives positioning white European Protestants as the only innovators, saviors, heroes. Their stories are centered, their history is centered, and Black children have to find out in college how their people were represented at various points in history. That's crazy.
13
Children's parents play a huge role in giving their children self confidence and respect for others. It's probably too late to start at age 4 and 5. If a child grows up in a home where people of color and women are denigrated that is what they will model.
7
The article does not mention the selection process or disciplinary policies. Also if there are any affirmative action policies meant to insure access for economically or socially disadvantaged children. All considerations routinely imposed on majority white schools condemned as segregated and regaled with admonishments of the advantages of submitting to those requirements.
2
@Edwin
one part says that school gave up on discipline in favor of mental health services....clearly those children are destined for life long hardships and a complete lack of self-control or self-respect.
2
Ah yes. The Afrocentric school. Where, I presume, English and Spanish are outlawed, silk ties and cotton blouses are dress code violations, and where printed material is taboo. Forget Michelle Obama's healthy school lunch initiative! Afrocentric schools, I assume, ban wheat, beef, chicken, eggs, dairy, and most fruits and vegetables from their tables, replaced by teff, guinea fowl, and certain kinds of yams. Here, history classes gloss over the Colombian Exchange and the Age of Discovery, and neglect to mention that every single domestic livestock animal in Africa has been introduced from elsewhere. Biology class ignores physical and genetic differences between different populations of humans, and the effects of animal agriculture on human evolution. Art class eschews "Hercules Beating the Centaur Nessus" or "The Raft of the Medusa" for... kaolin and wood and Oba's heads.
That's the problem with Afrocentric schools. They are great in theory, and issues of social justice and minority experiences definitely need to be taught and heard more frequently, but the payment for this has to be that European, Asian, Indian, and Middle Eastern culture and history alone is what is taught in our schools. Everything that makes Africa Africa either comes directly from, or is built squarely upon the shoulders of, non- African imports, and things like colonization, the slave trade, segregation, and inequality, have to be understood and respected within this context.
9
You’re woke.
1
@dsundepp
one thing these afrocentric schools will most assuredly not teach is the stark reality that african tribes enslaved other africans for centuries before europeans ever found the continent.
They will ignore that their fellow africans sold their ancestors to the egyptians and other arabian nations and eventually sold their kin to european slavers.
nope, that part of history will be ignored, but you can bet every graduate will know how to scream racism, microaggression and black power in equal measure.
11
This is a well intentioned program, and I hope it produces positive results. The black population, particularly, the black male population has not shared in American prosperity primarily due to the immoral and racist policies and attitudes of the past.
Being knowledgeable and proud of your background and ancestry is important and can help improve self confidence. However, I'm concerned if the racial focus of this school will become too emphasized, and will fixate these children into thinking that their racial identity is the most important aspect of their lives.
6
@Faria
The background of these people and kids is America NOT Africa. All many of these kids know is gansta rap, slap the ho, and the drug dealer on the corner is the local business man. None of which is a source of pride or self-confidence.
@mike Are you quoting the president?
3
Tried before (see Rhody McCoy and Bed Stuy school committee ) .
What to do about the nefarious slave system we put into place that made many rich and the country strong ? Pay them back ! 40 Acres and a mule , jobs program, work ,etc
3
@Dr Wu
Africans captured and sold other Africans for centuries before the Europeans showed up. That Europeans bought an commodity and made the export trade more efficient is not reason reparations.
Slavery, of all types, is a bad thing, but we have to stop acting like it was a white persons invention.
We also have to stop acting as if Africa is a nation, it is not. It is a continent and does not have a national identity.
7
Interesting perspective.
1
Doesn't the logic behind Afrocentric schools go against the very basic principle behind what Martin Luther King was trying to achieve: "...a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Shouldn't we all just mixed together and forget about skin color?
13
To my mind, the best thing about Afrocentric schools is the needed corrective they could provide to the wildly distorted "history of the West," so-called, that most mainstream schools provide to the students of European descent. The view of European history and culture propagated by the schools deviates so much from a true picture that one does not know where to begin.
One example : the use of ancient Greece, appropriated as "Western," verges on the laughable. The Greeks were a people who spoke a language much more closely related to Sanskrit and Persian than to modern-day English (and less distant from modern Spanish than from English, by the way), whose culture was influenced by the civilizations of ancient Egypt, Anatolia, and the upper Nile, who had a cyclic, rather than linear, view of time, whose leading philosophers often believed in reincarnation, and whose ethics were based on shame rather than guilt. Does any of this ressemble the picture of ancient Greece that is painted by the modern-day exponents of Western "superiority?" But it does tell us something about human differences.
If the history of the ancient world were to be taught fairly in Afrocentric schools, rather than in reaction to mainstream distortions, these children would certainly be better prepared for dealing with an important challenge of modern life: learning to patiently discern the difference between true statements and false ones, and to understand how the false ones end up being believed.
3
@Sonja
Afrocentric schools don't correct any historical teachings and in fact provide only a rose colored fantasy on life on the African Continent.
4
I’m all for whatever works (I attended Catholic schools), but wishing for something to work is not the same as actually working. According to the article, “a recent study found that some Afrocentric charter schools are low-performing”. That is a generous reading of the study, which found that a majority of the schools studied are low-performing.
To quote from the study abstract: “27 Afrocentric charter schools in the USA were identified. Twenty three of the schools met the criteria for analysis, and only 34 % of those schools achieved or exceeded statewide standards in testing and met their state’s AYP goals.”
18
An inevitable conclusion to a long-standing problem. I can't support it - it is beyond question an example of separate but equal. But then again, I don't support expensive private schools either, because it doesn't take a social scientist to know what demographic dominates those schools. I believe my kids are better off being in an integrated public school so they can learn that culture can be defined by diverse friendships as much as social history, but if you disagree and aren't teaching your kids to be militant anarchists out to kill me, go right ahead.
So I think my addition to this conversation will be: Please make sure to include a picture of George Washington Carver on the wall. Botany is such an amazing science, and under-appreciated in this era of technology.
4
If we lived in a country that had made a serious attempt to undo the centuries of racial injustice, this wouldn't be needed and might be counterproductive. But we don't live in that country. Until we do, this option has my full support.
14
Two words: parental involvement. Although not clearly referenced in this article, it is evident. The vast number of "afrocentric" NYC schools appear to be charter or private. Much research in addition to the anecdotal offered in this article emphasizes the role of parental initiative in seeking out an education they feel suitable for their children and then becoming involved on a daily basis in their child's education. Hence, the central issue here is parental involvement, not necessarily a particular school or type of school.
5
Integration works when there is clear movement toward equality, academically, culturally, and in respect for children, that the kids themselves see. I taught at an integrated high school in Oakland where the system segregated by academic level and the kids self-segregated socially. Afrocentric schools are a reasonable choice for black parents who see both integrated and involuntarily segregated schools fail their kids.
3
I found this article fascinating because I’ve believed for a long time that integration is the answer - and not just for children of color, but also for white children. How do you learn to be a good person and function in a world that is diverse if you grow up in a bubble?
That said, this concept reasonates with me because I can see the benefits of all-girls schools. White, Christian and male are the dominant ingredients in our education system AND in our economic, political and cultural institutions. Time for a change!
7
Profoundly disturbing. While racial pride might--maybe--be appropriate in some contexts, schools should celebrate one thing and one thing only: academic achievement.
15
So basicly....we're back to "separate but equal". Great.
23
Great sentiment but as a photographer I am very grateful for "black" skin along with all darker tones -- aside from cultural significance, for the aesthetic beauty.
2
I went to an all-girl's high school. The theory was that, being put into a position without the bias from (and for) boys, and the pressure of boy-girl dynamics in adolescence, girls would be free to develop their abilities fully. It seems to have been a positive for me and for many others. I can see why members of another group that has to deal with bias and low expectations from others to an even greater extent might want to put their kids in a place where they can concentrate on growing and thriving before facing the world.
It's just sad that we live in a world where that is necessary.
10
@E
Gender specific schools are designed to reinforce traditional gender conditioning. And in the case of girls, to preserve their virginity. If you escaped the negatives of those two elements in your education it's because you saw them as positives or had family perspectives which left you liberated. Many other girls, I assure you, were harmed by gender specific conditioning in such educational facilities. And here as well, there are handicaps to being isolated from reality during your formative years, not least of which will be the reinforcement of stereotypes that the educators prefer to more the more complicated embrace of the broader culture. Both gender and racial segregation foster a form of dumbing down in ignorance of the greater society in which the children will have to live for the larger part of their lives. These ideas have their roots in the mideval monastic societies, they are at their foundation fostering a belief system rooted in religious bias, wether they acknowledge it or not.
4
@Arthur - You clearly speak as somebody with no personal experience with all girls schools, at least not of present day all girls schools. They are schools that focus on girl power, women's achievements, and allow girls to speak up and not be set aside by male classmates in e.g. math and science classes. Girls schools are a major source of strong feminists. And before you worry too much, they are not brought up to hate men, or in a bubble with no knowledge of boys, nor do they miss out on any type of fundamental necessary education, despite the focus on women.
12
@Arthur you speak like a white male who has no idea of his privilege, you have benefited by being the default demographic all your life and now objects when others would like the same advantages that that entails. Also you are very misinformed, that is not the only history of all girl schools, educate yourself.
7
Just reading through the comments here and its astounding the amount of sarcastic questions/comments being posed that the commenters probably don't even realize are sarcastic. But let me say this; if you are not of Black heritage and you have not evolved from or do not have a personal knowledge of the struggle that the Black experience in these Americas has seared into our every breath, then your thoughts on the subject matter here are totally inconsequential (read: irrelevant). Your comments alone shout undeniably, that you have absolutely no grasp of the horrifically oppressive history of Blackness in these Americas and the continuing affects that this horrifically oppressive history continues to have on the Black experience. So do yourself and all of us a favor and sit back and allow those that truly care for these babies to do their thing and pray that the outcomes are as positive and fruitful as the educational endeavor itself appears to be as detailed in this article.
9
@Max
Substitute white or white heritage for every instance you used black.
16
@Maggie White heritage is inherently barbaric and is already widely celebrated. Just an example, Columbus Day. Columbus is widely revered as this mythic figure and revered as the great Genoese world explorer. The fact of the matter is, Columbus was a pirate and slave trader who was at the very beginning of the African and Native American's oppressed history. For a person of Colour to celebrate Columbus Day is synonymous w/ a Jewish man celebrating Hitler's birthday (no offense intended whatsoever to my Jewish commenters). But, the story of Columbus has been forced upon schoolchildren of the very ethnicities that he victimized since the beginning of time. Persons of Colour have historically been educated from the oppressors point of view. So, what's so wrong with an oppressed people (historically) taking what is being fed into their children's minds and psyche and provide it from his own narrative? Its called cultural pride and it only seems to be a problem when its peoples of Colour exhibiting and educating pursuant to their own culture. Why is that?
5
By today's American standards, Columbus was probably a 'person of color.' Columbus day is mostly bad history, but most celebrations fall into this category.
3
I have an elementary school a block from my home that is publicly celebrated for being diverse. It is 94% black.
21
My kid gets several study halls since my district won't pay for anything not needed for the Regent's Diploma. I had to pay out of my pocket to have dual enrollment College Algebra/Trig or choose to put him in another study hall, and you are spending my tax money on trips to another continent? I want a refund.
11
This is segregation and nothing more. Something the Left decried but now championed. If you have wondered why Leftist groups have sought to take down Confederate statues and memorabilia, this is it. They obviously want history to repeat itself by re-segregating society in order to further divide us.
17
Coming from always open-minded, super diverse and super tolerant Arizona. Thanks! Great contribution to the discussion.
6
@AZRandFan
Why is segregation inherently bad?
EVERYONE segregates ALL the time.
If the Federal government spends or loses a DIME on supporting religions, I certainly want them to spend money on supporting culture!!!
If ANY religious schools get support from the Federal government, any and ALL schools based on a particular culture or theme should get supported.
1
@AZRandFan
I guess my question is, are the negative impacts of segregation different when people choose to self segregate, over when they are forced to segregate because of racism?
The article seems to imply there is....
We do know that teens who attend historically Black Colleges fare very well. So why would should I assume that the kids in this article won't have the same experience?
White people need to get over the idea that they be included at all times, in everything, or people of color will somehow suffer.
What a completely arrogant assumption.
6
I adore these schools. In order to strive and negate institutional racism, these schools teach cultural love. I don't hear anyone complaining about Hasidic or Hebrew schools or Asian schools for language. Everyone who has ever gone to a( white privileged) private school knows black children are few and far between, often isolated out of cultural norms. I have helped raise African american kids with no parents and weak foster relatives. People of color in general need to have their cultural beauty enlarged and built upon. We American Irish spend our lives being lucky, denying our rise in the world is at the expense of other cultures. My thoughts hopefully will create a love, not a hate vote.
7
@Eliza Robertson
Yes, I do complain vehemently about those schools, but ONLY if the government is subsidizing them.
Conversely, the schools in the article are not supporting a religion, rather they are celebrating culture.
3
Im reading though the comments and it's pretty scarry how many people think this is a great idea. People who prbably think the are "progressive" this is "regressive" . How does this teach children to accept people of all kinds. We should be trying to do the EXACT opposite of what many people are suggesting. What a shame.
12
@Tony - There are lots of completely and dominantly white schools all over the country. "How does this teach children to accept people of all kinds"? What makes you think that the celebration of Black history and beauty in this school makes them unaccepting of others?
6
In the conversation about public education why are Asians never mentioned except to say they are taking too many places from African American and Hispanic students. Is it just a stereotype that they do as well as or better than white students and if so why don’t journalists dispell that view. If not, what do we know about how Asian students learn and what they do to succeed and how can that be transferred to help other students succeed?Today Asians are not an insignificant minority in this country. Surely their successes and failures deserve to be part of this conversation.
14
@Bessy Kong
Funny, I teach at a state college and there are plenty of Asians failing. And plenty of Africans succeeding.
(including both -American varieties in the mix)
2
We live in a racist society, this appears to be a great way to shield children from the worst of it. Of course mindful parents will figure out a way to have people of different races in their children's lives, maybe by joining a religious organization, scout group or music ensemble where they can know kids and teachers outside of school, maybe befriend neighbors who are good people, who you can come to trust. Shielding children from the worst of us when they are very young is a very good idea, they can learn about our cruel world when they grow older.
2
@DJM
We live in a misogynist society, always have. The two groups most affected by low education attainment, blacks and latinos, are also the very same two with the most hideous misogyny, genuflection to ancient religions, illegitimacy and abandonment by males of their partner and offspring.
11
Give a child a fish - and you feed her for a day.
Teach her how to fish - and she will be able to feed herself for a lifetime - while teaching other children how to fish for themselves.
2
New York charter school are public schools, not private school. People who think Afrocentric school designed expectedly for back children cannot reasonable object to Eurocentric public schools explicitly for white children, as long as they accept students of all races.
11
@William Case - Do you realize that this school is in response to white-centric public schools everywhere?
2
But New Yorkers are complaining that too many public schools are primarily black.
2
All this will do is continue to polarize the country as well as the right and left. As well as Black-centric schools we will see white-centric and Asian-centric and you name it. Stories like this are why Donald Trump is now our president. All the news tends to do is rile people up and point out our differences. Trump won, in part because white people are tired of being ignored.
11
Trump won because White people bought into all his lies. Mexicans/Hispanics are not out to kill/destroy White people, jobs or culture. This story broke my heart because no child should be called a slave. I don’t understand why it’s so difficult for us to talk about race. Let’s listen, learn and come up with solutions to our problems.
3
Hmm. Substitute the word "white" for black and "Euro" for "Afro" in this article and see how long it takes for it to get pulled as racist.
ok, that said, do these schools prepare kids in a way that is superior to other, more integrated schools? I'm all for learning about different cultures and appreciating (and being proud of) one's own culture. The concern here is whether this Afrocentric educational experience provides a stronger foundation for these kids to function in an inherently integrated world or whether it fosters the perception of black victimization to the systematically racist society that is America?
Education should be the great equalizer. Education is the primary means by which anyone (black or white) is able to pull themselves from poverty. If these schools provide black students more incentive to excel at education and promote a desire to pursue more at college and beyond, more power to them. If they simply generate more BLM or similarly race-obsessed activists convinced of the oppressiveness of white-dominated society, then it doesn't solve any problems.
It's my sincerest hope that this inspires kids to academically excel rather than calcify their perceptions of victimhood.
16
If black stidents leave general public schools for black charter schools it will be an affirmation of the separate-but-equal doctrin. It will also make lives much easier for those remain.
3
Oh, enough with the reverse racism outrage! And the indignation about the students needing to be exposed to all races in order to get along, and the decelerations about us all being human. These are all great perspectives when you’re in the majority and your history and culture are part of the curriculum. I agree that there are definite benefits to everyone being integrated and learning to get along, but how about black, Hispanic, Native American (insert group) history also be a required part of the mainstream curriculum? Maybe then marginalized groups wouldn’t feel the need to segregate in order to offer an alternative environment where their children fit it. And as for the comments to the tune of, “it’s great, but I hope they’re teaching math and science too” seriously? What makes you think they aren’t, because Afrocentric is equivalent to not educated? All of this said, I do worry about these schools because it could just create another reason to withhold funding and quality education where it’s needed most. Not to mention that it’s an even better excuse to continue to excuse white students from learning about anyone but themselves.
8
Afrocentric schools are primarily formed to re-dress racism that remains pervasive in American society and to instill a positive understanding of black identity. Unfortunately integration and Brown vs Board was unable to do this as this very principle was challenged from the beginning (as revealed in Thurgood Marshall’s biography). Until true respect of Black and brown people, history, culture is fostered in public education it is imperative that Black and brown parents protect the wellbeing of their children on their own terms as these schools intend to do
5
To be proud of one's identity seems worthwhile. To build that identity around skin color seems more like decay than achievement.
23
“I love myself! I love my hair, I love my skin!”
Sometimes you have to shout out loud to push back against those who see your hair, your skin, your self as a problem, a doubt, a scar.
When I supervised student teachers for a major university's ed. program as I studied for my PhD, I'd enter a school where I had 10 student teachers and see child after child banished to the school hallway, exiled by the teacher from their peers. Most of the kids in the classroom were white. Most relegated to the hallway were black. Then I'd watch these very same kids absolutely shine in a Saturday African American enrichment program run by one of the best teachers I've ever seen in action.They took leadership positions. They absolutely glowed in the presence of genuine affirmation and encouragement. No one sat alone in a hallway.
I saw this dichotomy play out week after week after week.
I'm a white guy. I'm tired of folks from my own demographic pronouncing ill-formed opinions on programs designed to counter the very bias so many in the white community unreflectively perpetuate.
Read the top comments. How many talk condescendingly to black people who are presumed to not know best for their own children? Well, there's one clue to the root of the problem.
I've studied two such affirming programs, both absolutely life-saving in their ability to heal, over several years.
So would I feel the right to parent these parents as they make the choice for their own kids? Not in a million years.
32
@C. Whiting Thank you so much for sharing your experience. For this piece, I spoke with dozens of educators and parents who had a similar experience - they saw their children and pupils shine when they were in environments that were supportive *and* academically rigorous. That is the whole idea behind Eagle Academies, the public network of schools I refer to at the end of the piece, which is worth looking into more if you're interested in this topic!
15
I find this fascinating. Growing up in the Caribbean we were taught African history, European history and then when the civilizations collided. So there was African resistance, European conquest and the triangular slave trade between Africa, the Caribbean and America. We were taught about slavery, resistance and rebellion. The Maroons in Jamaica, Haiti's successful fight for independence etc. In my ignorance I thought kids in America learned about this as well. When I came to the US to attend the University I was asked if we lived in huts by someone in my first class. I was shocked and asked my father how someone in University could be so ignorant. In the 1960's Caribbean immigrants in England would create schools that their kids would go to on saturdays to learn about African and Caribbean culture and achievement. My impression of the US is that this is not taught in schools and there is a fear of learning about other cultures and peoples. It's a binary thinking, zero sum and I think insecurity. As the world becomes smaller, the panic grows, hence the talk about walls etc. Whenever I get back to the Caribbean I buy history textbooks that my child can read. Please note this is my impression based on talking to American high school students and my own child going through the education system. It is not meant to be a blanket statement, just my impression of what I've seen.
14
White schools have not gone away.
Besides white wealth conclaves, look at the schools in the South after 50 years of "desegregation". The neighborhoods & schools have been reconfigured into white conclaves protected by gerrymandering.
The social and structural segregation systems are still very much in place.
2
Johnw
There is far more segregation in the North than in the South. Take NJ, they have separate “Townships” which are economic prosperous white, Asian, SouthAsian, and Jewish enclaves which keep out blacks based on economics. If you are too poor to afford housing in their enclave then you are kept out. In the South there are county wide schools which integrate students of all races. In NJ, the majority black schools are in Camden and Trenton. So while the Progressives smugly pat themselves on the back in Northern states that they are “tolerant” they segregate blacks to impoverished, areas with bad schools.
3
Looks like fun and wish I had something like this for my sons. We are black, but my kids have attended predominately white schools for their entire education. My oldest is a freshman in high school and has depressingly told me he doesn't think any of the black girls in the school are attractive and he only wants to date white girls. He also makes depressing statements in jest about how his friends think he "acts white" because he is in all gifted and talented classes and is a little nerdy. *Sigh* but what to expect when he is immersed in the white supremacy stew however the good intentions. I'm looking forward to the inevitable identity crisis and full on Black Power fascination when he goes to college. So wish there was a school like this to help ease his way to self-acceptance and love in a world that has so little for him that it wants him to believe that everything smart and good about him is "acting white"
10
What about reading and writing and math and academic skills which will have a chance to enhance their lives.
9
@Art All these schools are academically rigorous, and many have test scores at/above city average, and graduation rates in some cases far above the city average.
15
Afrocentric schools are fine if that’s what parents want,as are elite schools who entrance is determined soley by test scores.Both can serve it’s students interests.
It’s reasonable that parents want a variety of school options.
4
Don't disagree with the concept, but it flies in the face of Brown vs. Board of Education which was intended to desegregate all public schools. Because what happens to these new segregated schools when they no longer get funding? The more things change the more the stay the same.
13
I think there is no one size fit all school for kids. Although my child is biracial, I didn’t have a concern about her cultural footing because of the environment we have here in the Bay Area. However, I didn’t want her to experience what happens to girls in middle school where their voices are silenced and boys dominate. So I found a wonderful all girls middle school that helped her to develop significant leadership skills. However, I wanted her to take those skills to a coed high school where she could get into the mix because that’s the world she has to be able to live in. Happily, I had the financial resources to make this work.
As a product of the public schools, I found as I went from a segregated middle school to mostly white high school, the environment was not nurturing and you had to fight to be heard and be included. If a kid doesn’t have a good sense of self, it’s hard to survive. So I can see the need for these culturally based programs but I would limit them to pre-k or early primary grades.
2
Any alternative to the many abysmally poor Brooklyn public high schools, where even attendance is unnecessary for graduation, has to be given its chance. No outsider can hope to understand the depths of malfeasance and neglect to be found in the district. No reporters have exposed it.
6
Segregation is bad. it's bad when whites do it. it's bad when blacks do it. this does not solve the problems of racial discrimination and inequality, it just enhances and prepretuates it.
25
Pride/black culture/white culture ... what does it all mean anyway? I have no "pride" being white. I'm gay ... I never got this "gay pride" .. what is it?
My parents loved me .. gave me one great education.
I'm not sure how you package love .. but, if the schools give a robust rounded eduction -- they will be fine. I worry though when you start out with the idea of segregation.
10
I wonder what Martin Luther King would think about this. The idea of school is not only to teach children about our world but it's also how to learn to interact with it. I don't think this serves the latter very well. What do I know though. Im just a white male.
8
@Tony
Yes, I wonder that as well. Unfortunately he was assassinated so his voice was silenced. People continue to attach slurs to his name as evidenced by the recent weather forecast fiasco.
2
We're doomed, black or white or whatever, if the curriculum revolves around how whether it makes students feel good about themselves.
31
Like profanity, when you see or hear about a really awful idea, you know it. This approach is a disservice to all Americans, especially our children.
8
Segregation did not merely create inequality, practices of anti-black racism reflected in law did. The tendency is to abstract racism to inanimate objects and laws, and to forget that white people were and are largely behind its practices. The black radical response to perpetual denigration in terms of physiognomy, aptitudes, and everything human is the most logical thing to do within a white supremacist society. Therefore, hostility toward black people reclaiming their sense of self is a reflection of the depth of black denegration in this country.
1
this is great ...the new discriminatory school religious charter school laws might actually help us create our own school..redistribution of wealth.
2
Oh, the irony!
So, now it's OK to be proud of ones culture and ethic background? Does that apply to white people, too?
The left will always run into contradictions in their thinking b/c the majority of it is based on illogical foundations.
I want people to be proud of their heritage, wherever they come from and whatever their skin color. No exceptions.
15
attaching intrinsic value to race is probably what underlies the phenomenon of racism
19
So what amounts to segregating blacks from whites is a good thing? This is supposed to instill racial "pride"? Haven't here been major national legal battles to fight just that? What hypocrisy. There are so many double standards in our society, with race the top issue on that. And when someone who is white complains about this obvious two-faced situation, they're ridiculed. It's hopeless!
11
Because learning, teaching and education should always be based on skin color.
13
Perhaps we should have schools set up exclusively for Asians, too. And Hispanics. And whites. And people of mixed race.
And while we’re at it, let’s also have schools exclusively for boys. And girls. And the other hundreds of genders that exist. Also, different sexualities might need their own facilities as well.
But why stop there? Let’s have schools for kids with red hair and freckles. They ought to be proud of who they are, their skin, and their hair. Red haired kids with freckles frequently get picked on for looking different and have few red-haired role models to look to in school text books.
And let’s also have separate schools for short kids, tall kids, fat kids, skinny kids. We don’t want anyone to suffer body shaming.
The benefits of social cohesion are a small price to pay for making sure everything is properly atomized in order to ensure the self-esteem of our youth.
25
@Kirby
Where I live, there are many schools that are virtually 100% white - they are 95%+ white.
Granted, I'm probably included as white since I am multi-racial.
Would Obama be included as white or black or both?
Be very careful where this could go. What if someone decides to start a White culture school with only White students and teachers? Or how about those Madrassas? Or? Dangerous idealism here with all of this.
15
@cb
News flash: for two and a half centuries we've already had "White culture school with only White students and teachers." Why do you think we needed desegregation?
And, as for Madrassas? They'd only be the latest addition to religious schools in America after the Catholic and Jewish institutions.
It's funny how the flaws in a system are suddenly apparent when a minority engages in the same behavior.
9
If we have whites-only schools then we have blacks-only schools. Right? That's why we have the Brown decision.
It doesn't hold water that we must have Afro-centric schools because we have Caucasian schools. NYC is trying a new desegregation program because so many of our public schools are virtually all black.
Parents must parent, and kids must read and study. Period. Holds for whites too.
2
I think this is a positive thing. It's a myth that white people don't celebrate whiteness in all white schools and it's a sure fact that white people move away from neighborhoods that seem to be getting "too Black" so their children don't have to go to what they perceive as declining schools. White people celebrate their ethnic backgrounds ---German festivals, Serbian festivals, Irish, etc. etc. Why shouldn't Black people do the same without criticism? Black people should have control of their schools if that is what they want and it is very important that public/charter/voucher schools in all Black neighborhoods be funded at exactly the same level of schools in all white neighborhoods. Teaching your kids that they and their culture have value is a good thing as long as we all teach that their is value in all cultures and we can all learn from each other.
6
There's always been a considerable segregationist camp in New York's black community. It came from the american south and it was preserved in the same way every community which immigrated here preserved elements of culture from their homelands. Another group of black New Yorkers — the black Yankees were subjected to a form of segregation imposed on them by housing discrimination, and lived in separate neighborhoods not by choice but by design of common prejudice reinforced by banking and real estate practices the city didn't bother to police. Hardly surprising them that we find passionate segregationists among New Yorkers today. Yet there's something hodden behind the revival of all the touchy-feely pan-african talk from the 70's. The black community to the extent that it did share any power at all within the system, did so at the expense of the new southerners. A few old families formed a gentry that governed them, the names are known. Segregation preserves their power base and their control of state and federal funds in politics and the arts. A new segregationist structure in education will preserve the traditions of that particular power clan. It will handicap the children from outside it — who will never be allowed to join it. Black elites discriminate against their own, as all elites do. They're only human. But it's not to support "The Black Community" lets drop that charade and reform the whole NYC education system through integration — finally, please.
7
I think it's great but I hope they also put an emphasis on math and science.
3
What is left and brushed aside is the idea of the schools not having done enough to prepare the students to perform well, or at least better, in state and city tests. I would think that if anything, pride in one's race and culture would still need to wrestle with the challenge of doing well on tests...unless that notion is considered too white and therefore irrelevant?
4
Eventually, these students will have to integrate into this nation for college, work and otherwise. Or continue to self-segregate.
This may not have a positive end result.
19
I was employed at a School of Medicine that aggressively recruited black students from HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities). Many of these students, Star students at the HBCUs, were overwhelmed when they entered medical school and had to be given two years of pre-med courses just to be on a somewhat level playing field. These black students told me they were furious that their coursework was not rigorous at the HBCUs and at these schools students were shifted into black studies courses and other “ethnic curricula” that did not prepare them for their futures. I’m all for creating a system where black students can reach their potential but putting them in a school system that fails to teach essential core curricula for the sake of their skin color is a huge disservice to these kids. A mind is a terrible thing to waste using the United Negro College Fund slogan.
3
I totally get why a black family would want to send their children to these schools, but how depressing that this is what we have come to. I feel the same unease when I hear about people home-schooling, sending their kids to ultra-religious schools, low quality Charters, or swanky private schools.
Public education should be comprehensive, challenging and confidence building. Kids should learn English (well), science, mathematics, geography, civics, and be exposed to the arts, so that our students don't perform dismally when compared to elsewhere in the world.
We have truly failed when children have to self-segregate to feel accepted and loved, and be well-educated.
10
Yes, separating all of us into our schools by ethnicity, race and religious beliefs is such a positive for our country.
13
I think it is wonderful that there are schools where black children are given an opportunity to grow up with confidence and assurance about themselves. Yet, the job of these schools is also to provide an education that would make these students productive members of the society that includes blacks, whites, Asians and people of other skin shades. That means that these Afrocentric schools should not forget about teaching math, science, technology, languages and literature so that when the kids leave these havens they will be no worse off than children with different backgrounds and have confidence and knowledge to face their peers. After all, schools should be mostly about education, not just about loving oneself.
2
Truly interesting, while major public schools wrestle with racial equity training, which has shown little success in raising academic achievement, or combating the school to prison pipeline, I actually think this is a wonderful school. In a country built on white supremacy, these parents and teachers can ask for nothing less for the beautiful black souls of their deserving children, power to the people yes!
3
What’s next, schools explicitly for Koreans? Bangladeshis? Polish? I’m a POC, an immigrant who came to Canada at a young age and endured a healthy amount of racism. It was unfair, but I try to stand tall today and teach my child to value hard work and empathy. I lead by example knowing that actions speak louder than words. As she grows up, I will teach her about world history and various cultures. Every culture has plenty to be proud of. The inner-city public school she goes to is diverse. Multiculturalism works as long as the greater goal is unity!
14
how is it possible to put a good spin into this story? superficial slogans, dispensing advice via a pop star's video, accompanying pictures of little girls "doing hair"? The part of the low performing school was brushed over as if expected and the curriculum not part of the story. Follow these children for 10 years and prove us wrong.
21
Perhaps integration would be more successful if students that attend predominately Caucasian schools took required courses in African History and Culture with an emphasis on Black American History. As for the schools depicted in the article, if they are meeting the goal of creating well rounded citizens more power to them, but I admit I am skeptical of any system that emphasizes social, or racial differences rather than our similarities. After all, I only look the way I do, because my no doubt Black African ancestors migrated from East Africa to what is now the Middle East.
2
Based on my own experience and observations, I'd say that African American kids who get a good enough education at Afro-centric schools have a real shot at a good life, wherever that life might take them.
In my case, I (Caucasian) went to Catholic school in the fifties and sixties. Not the best education (60+children in a class), but good enough to get me into professional school and on to a professional career.
Looking back, I realize that, after high school, I was always a bit odd and never fit in in the same way I had in my Catholic school days. But I was solid enough by that point. Others who left the tight Catholic world at younger ages and went to better schools at the urging of concerned relatives often lost their mental equilibrium under the pressures of not fitting in or of being stereotyped.
In sum: get a solid sense of self before moving on to the outside world.
5
Yes. Your comparison to your positive Catholic school experience is a fruitful analogy. These schools appear to be working well. We don't know if it's because they draw motivated teachers, or motivated families, or because they build morale in the way you noted. As a Catholic school grad myself, I suspect the latter! Thanks for the comment.
I don’t think this is ultimately as helpful as its proponents believe it is but that’s not the point I’d like to address. The article states that New York schools are ‘deeply segregated’
If it weren’t so absolutely tragic it would be laughable. New York, the place from which the activists came who helped transform the American South by demanding the integration of public schools there in the 1960s has, in 2019, a deeply segregated educational system?
All benefitting the same class and families who sent those activists into the south to fight for educational equality and justice so long ago? The hypocrisy of these liberal coastal enclaves is mind boggling. Come and tell others how to live and construct their just societies, New York. But you keep the inequalities that benefit your children in place for as long as that cold reality suits your needs.
The show business celebrity activists of Los Angeles, home to more students in elite ultra-expensive private K-12 schools than probably anywhere else on earth, join affluent New Yorkers in their convenient advocacy for educational equality in any and every place in America but where they themselves live and educate their own.
6
This story struck me as disheartening. Here's why: I'm a 60-year-old white male who grew up in the deep south and attended a newly integrated, formerly all black public middle school. My parents believed in integration, as do I, and took to heart Martin Luther King Jr.'s assertion that people should be judged by the content of their character. While the schools portrayed here might be well-intended, it seems we are taking a big step backward when we focus on the superficiality of skin color instead of our common humanity.
18
To be Afrocentric does not necessarily imply segregated. Perhaps if more of these white progressives would live their professed beliefs we would see integration in the light of Black centered education. It's time for white people to step up and pry the claws of mind numbing white supremacy from all of us.
3
This is self-segregation by some other twisted name.
You need to learn aspects of world-cultures to get along with anybody. Segregating yourself just creates the impression in young minds that their culture is better than those of others, leading to little racists!
15
Segregation and pride are ok when shown by (insert ethnicity here), but not when shown by (insert ethnicity here).
But when a group was segregated they wanted to be integrated.
Now the same group wants segregation.
Can we just stop with the ethic divide?
We're one race - human.
12
If test scores are better than average and students are succeeding in the elite high schools of NYC, how can there be any arguments against this? Longitudinal studies are needed to really assess the success of these afrocentric schools. However, as an American who is neither of African nor European descent, I can't shake the feeling that "separate but equal" applies here.
I suppose that America is the not the melting pot that my immigrant family believes it to be. I can see the purpose of these afrocentric and other themed schools in the context of race relations in the history of the US, but how does a proponent of these schools reconcile with MLK: the content of one's character, not the color of one's skin?
2
Having a strong sense of identity and/or Black culture is only part of the struggle. Creating a culture which places a high value on education in school and at home is paramount. In fact, education takes place primarily after school. A student with a moderately priced personal computer search web sites which explain subjects which he is taking in school. For example, while a teacher may be defining what an adverb is, there may be better explanations of the definition online of an adverb for the student. Hopefully, these Afrocentric schools are encouraging their students to use personal computer to explore Black culture at home.
I am just wondering what would happen if a group of white nationalist parents asked for a similar school? You all know the answer to that. Also, in light of Brown v BOE, how can these schools possibly be in compliance with Federal law?
24
@Abbott Hall - Sigh! Those schools are already all over the country. White-centric schools teaching white-centric history, focusing on white role models, and where being white is the all encompassing beauty ideal.
5
Equitably fund all public schools, and insure there is no de jure segregation. Period. Then let the demographic chips fall where they may.
[By "equitable" I mean schools should receive the funding they need to properly educate the students they have. High needs schools with large numbers of special needs and students in poverty cost more to run, so should receive more money than high income suburban schools. I have no problem paying more taxes for this.]
We need to stop obsessing over "integration". It's a distraction and a pipe dream. Diversity is nice, but most people, white and black, just want well funded schools in their OWN community. Segregation can even be an opportunity to concentrate extra resources on high needs or target unique student populations.
I have no problem with my tax dollars going to Afro Centric schools if they are a positive good for the children and their community, and if they are chosen by the parents or are the result of neighborhoods where people - surprise! - choose to live near others that share their culture.
Religiously and ethnically segregated Catholic Schools in urban ghettos educated millions of poor immigrant children generations ago. Those children thrived and felt valued in their own, tight knit communities. They became solid, integrated members of the American middle and professional class. Today the descendants of European Catholic immigrants are wealthier and better educated than the average American.
3
Great idea. And then demand inclusion while excluding.
16
If the races in this article were reversed, there would be outrage. The deep irony that nearly all of the arguments made by the board of education in Brown are being reinforced by the thoughts and feelings of black families in this article. Some might say since the Southern States had the largest black population, they actually knew quite a bit more about racial needs and community differences between ethnic groups than the mostly white northern courts which handed down the ruling. Sounds insane, right? And yet here we have this article which seems like it could have been written by a PC southerner attempting to advocated for segregation on the basis that races feel more comfortable among their own. (People need to realize, despite the dominant display of the culture in movies and literature, many southerners posited their segregation arguments along these more "polite" lines.) So where do we draw the line? Is it time to end the state meddling in free association? If the races wish to segregate, let them? When you think about it beyond the momentary virtue of supporting minority groups, the question and implication become a lot deeper.
16
There are a lot of comments indicating that all black schools are somehow racist, but I don't see this to be the case. If anything, they are an attempt to mitigate against the racism that is in many ways inherent in our education system. I'm a white teacher of mostly minority students. It often occurs to me that my status as their instructor sends them a message about what education and what authority looks like. I know that "shouldn't matter" but it does matter--to us all. Veneration of blackness is just an attempt to bring it up to the level of whiteness, which is already venerated in so many ways, subtle and unsubtle. The endgame of racism won't be when we all forget about race--it will be when we all love each-other and see every race, every shade, with the same sense of inherent worth. That takes practice and work.
7
An African American friend of mine wanted to apply exclusivelt to historically black colleges after graduating from her public urban high school. Her father refused to let her do so; she begged; he stood his grounds. His reasoning was that the majority black student and teacher populations at those colleges were clearly not a realistic snapshot of what she would step out into upon graduation. He wanted her to experience and learn from diversity in a place where she would have to navigate and define herself (sometimes painfully) in the majority white world of the workforce she would join after graduation.
Note to the reader: Her wise father was a judge in a large Midwestern city. His opinion, however is not infallible. It is and should be a personal choice for parents to decide what they believe best for the future of their own children whether it be Little Sun People or P.S. 24.
My friend went on to graduate from a large ethnically diverse university in the Northeast. Today she is a highly respected t.v. personality with great appeal to a multiracial and multiethnic spectrum of viewers. Just for the record...in case you're wondering, my friend is not Oprah.
12
I realize that because Oprah did attend an HBCU-TENNESSE STATE UNIVERSITY!
1
I wouldn’t be proud of that- it is considered the worst public U in TN! Constantly on probation and under scandal.
1
These are the same people that manage to say with a straight face that homogeneous Afrocentrism is somehow “diversity.”
23
This makes sense. The idea that black children can only learn if there are also white students in the classroom is inherently racist.
4
I applaud the efforts of parents and educators to instill a sense of self worth among these children color. However, I worry that the pull of the street, especially as these children get older, will be irresistible to many. I grew up in a white working class city and that dynamic held sway for many of my peers. The school to jail pipeline is not unique to neighborhoods of black and brown people. Motivated and engaged parents are a major factor in being able to break this dynamic, even more so than the school environment. I wish them well.
1
I am not the color of my siblings. I am brown, one is white, and two are light tan.
My kids are similar - one is pale white, one is white, and one is brown.
Where do we go? Do these schools focus on skin color so much that families are broken up?
I wonder about how the "one-drop" law is being reversed, how the comment about "seeing you" only applies to people who are definitely black, definitely white, definitely Asian...
Where do multi-racial people fit in all of this?
14
@RH
The old "one drop" law or rule applied to white people who had distant black ancestry. Biracial people and the oddly described quadroons and octoroons were considered to be slaves aka black.
School integration in Asheville destroyed the high quality education that black children were receiving in Asheville's segregated schools. Prior to integration the typical black High School teacher in Asheville had a master's degree or PhD. The school prided itself on community uplift and creating a highly educated professional class of black citizens in Asheville. Most of those teachers were not rehired when the black only schools were shut down and black children went from being the beloved object of their teachers' attention to being a minority problem to deal with. That was also the beginning of the school-to-prison pipeline in Asheville schools. America's integrated schools shortchange black students.
8
Wow. So many of the letters in response to the article are rife with negative and profoundly ignorant assumptions about black families, children, communities, history, values, aspirations, in short, black lives. This in addition to being condescending, dismissive, and informed by the assumption that white = norm/universal and black = aberrant/other, e.g. white supremacy at its loathsome worst. These attitudes underline the point of the teachers, students and parents who support, attend and advocate for Afrocentric education.
12
Today's elementary education teaches young blacks that their recent ancestors were slaves and the the great-great grandchildren of the slaveholders are sitting right next to them. This unavoidable fact should not be presented to any young child. If our racially diverse country has any chance of surviving, it will be because we recognize all people have unique cultures and unique historical narratives. And give each voice. "E Pluribus Unum" worked when USA was overwhelmingly white. Now it doesn't.
2
In the long run, I'm not seeing the benefit in encouraging an 'Us - Them' mentality.
21
@Ed Wasil
But Trump can encourage it from the White House?
Do girls need to be educated separately?
Abolish ALL single-gender schools, or at least ban them from any government funding. That's a bigger inequality than race...
1
This is great. Jewish day schools are so expensive. I am going to start a charter so the public can pay for my kid's Jewish education. I will consult a lawyer to make sure that it does not run afoul of the First Amendment. A little careful curriculum adjustment can do that trick. We will just focus on law, ethics, and Zionism.
24
@Observer of the Zeitgeist - NYC already has a Hebrew public charter school. It obviously does not engage in religious teaching. Neither does the school featured in the article.
5
racism is something unthinkable for me.....it will take generations to get rid of this stupid and criminal bias....
3
Black Lives Matter affirms racial dissimilarities, it is a reaction to the life suppressing experiences that people suffer for no good reason except other people’s mistrust of outsiders to a group with who they identify. It’s not going to help end the problem of racism but it enables people to vent their frustrations.
Whatever it takes to get a child a good education in their own neighborhood is the right thing to do for that child. Tax based funding inequalities were what I saw as a pupil of NYC schools in the 1970's. Every child should feel welcome in all aspects of their educational experience. Sorry for all the white comments questioning the need for black empowerment in the face of hundreds of years of oppression. To them I would say open your eyes and witness what is going on around you. Graduate of Flushing High School, Class of 1980.
3
Trips to South Africa? Are the "educators" at these schools unaware of the fact that the vast majority of the ancestors of the vast majority of the students at their schools came from West Africa and that they have little or no connection to South Africa?
Does a trip to South Africa allow the sutdents to "feel better about themselves" than a visit to Ghana, Togo, Cameroon, or Nigeria would?
After five decades of misguided and confused social engineering in our education system, this is what we end up with? God help us.
32
To those who say that integration is the only solution, what are you willing to give up for it? Are you willing to lobby for substantial criminal justice reform so that black families are not broken up by the system? Are you willing to challenge the way school districts are funding by proposing an alternative to property taxes? Are you willing to accept desegregation busing into your child's school district? Are you lobbying for zoning laws so that higher density residencies can be built within your school district?
13
@Clarence These are all crucial questions that speak to the fact that school integration isn't just about schools. One major criticism of Mayor de Blasio's handling of the city's segregated school system is that he's blamed school segregation on housing segregation when the reality is more complicated. But people on all sides of this debate want broader, longer-term solutions to the inequities that come with school segregation.
6
Schools in the U.S. predominantly teach a white curriculum celebrating white authors, scientists, historical figures etc. with an annual lip service to Black history month, and, if they are very lucky, Asian, Pacific, or Latin history and culture. My Asian children managed in one case to make it to 10th grade before she ever read anything by an Asian-American author. By 8th grade, the only Asian person any teacher had ever assigned any project on was Confucius. I applaud this effort to integrate Black history as a larger part of the curriculum. No doubt they will have plenty of opportunity to learn the white history too.
12
This is great! I see nothing wrong with a Afrocentric charter school. Seems like an ideal alternative choice for parents, and for children, an opportunity to gather information about one of Americas often hidden history.
4
"Separate but equal" was never equal, and that was a major point of it.
Could it now be made equal? This article assumes that it can. I'm not so sure, not at all.
There was another major point to integration of schools. It was to raise a generation that knew each other better as individuals rather than as stereotypes.
That worked, in time, in the military, albeit with serious efforts to overcome serious problems along the way. It did not work in prisons, where self-segregating gangs just made prisons even worse. Which model is this?
Self segregation is still segregation, and it has a price. As with the Tragedy of the Commons, any one student does not pay it for going off to a separate school, but if that is the pattern for everyone, the price is high.
I'd suggest this effort at self image and appreciation belongs in an activity, rather like the extra schooling efforts of other minorities, Hebrew school, Japanese language school, Bible studies, and many others I've heard about.
8
Integration will always be the answer. Kids of all races should go to school together. Their communities are diversified, why take that away when they go to school?
We know, thanks to many historians who have taken the time to dig for the truth of American history, that schools have not taught true events. Unfortunately, because many people do not read as adults, they have a distorted view of the past.The battle for integration has been fought even though it will continue until people understand we are all one and the same.
Oh, and I am sorry, showing clips of Beyonce in school, doesn't cut it. I don't care what color she is, she is not an example for girls or boys.
13
A question for Ms. Shapiro--when you were interviewing the teachers and parents, did you get a chance to discuss owning the outcomes?
My first reaction to this article was, great, anything that works is progress, especially if it gains support from the parents and community. But a common problem with charter schools in the Bay Area is that when they teach a divergent curriculum, and their students then fare poorly on standardized tests at a high school or college-entry level, they cry for either massive changes to the standardized tests or, worse, a lowering of the standards. Your article clearly describes the current need, but I'd love to know more about their feelings on standardized testing and how their students will or will not do when then they reach the entry portals for higher education.
11
@Bryan Hi - thanks for your comment and this question. As I mention in the story, the schools I visited have average or above average standardized test scores, and the city's Afrocentric public high schools in particular have high graduation rates. Different principals had different views on the importance of standardized testing, but the schools are academically rigorous.
9
@Eliza Shapiro
"the schools I visited have average or above average standardized test scores"
Maybe you are using a different source for data (very possibly- since you are a reporter!) but NYC DOE documents
Ember Charter as 32% reaching Math standards- where NYC citywide is 43%
Eagle Academy for Young Men II as 18% meeting English Standards- where the city is at 47%
Also Eagle is way below on on all state Regents.
That doesn't diminish the empowerment/power/positivity of the schools but in a conversation about "entry portals" and achievement per current testing, these details matter.
https://tools.nycenet.edu/snapshot/2018/84K406/EMS/#SA
https://tools.nycenet.edu/snapshot/2018/23K644/EMS/#SA
4
@Maria You left out a couple things from the data in those snapshots. These schools have populations with 74% and 85% in economic need, yet Eagle's middle school has a disproportionately high rate of 8th graders earning HS credit, which is a key milestone towards graduation, and has stellar survey responses from students, parents and teachers. Both do much better when compared to their districts, where the population is more comparable than that of the rest of the city.
You can see more in the NYCDOE's detailed reports here:
https://tools.nycenet.edu/guide/2018/#dbn=23K644&report_type=EMS
1
This is so 1970s!
6
The melting pot has become a bowl of marbles.
13
While this approach may be well intentioned it is Not solving the Root Cause Of Racism. It is like turning the calendar back to the 50’s. African Americans must ask themselves, do I want my children to be kept in an incubator until they are adults. Wouldn’t you be angry if you found out the daily life of the average person is not in conformity with your education, and that’s your inheritance. We must confront racism and not let Americans rest comfortably believing racism is not worth discussing. Retreating from Brown v the Board Of Education is Unethical, and Cowardly!
8
@TheHowWhy, think of the kids who went to Catholic schools. Were they angry to find out that not everyone knows how to say the Rosary?
And those homeschooled kids! Wow, they must be really angry to find out that public schools exist, and there are rules their mom didn't know about!
Wow, folks get pretty upset, what with schools that teach pride in black achievements and history! Honestly, can you not think of any other examples of specialized schools? Don't Christian schools teach God pride?
It's not segregation! Anyone can apply. It's that you hate black pride. America is not just for white pride. If you don't want your child to go to an Afro-centric school, don't enroll them. Ditto for your daughter going to a science-centric school, or for your church's sponsored God-centric school, or those special education-centric schools. There's just nothing bad happening.
Regarding your claim of 'retreating from Brown v BOE, that would apply only if white children were not allowed to apply or attend. Very weak argument, even if you capitalize a lot.
See how America works? Geez, let these kids learn what their parents value, just as YOU do.
7
And David Duke, Jeff Sessions and Steve King will be opening a chain of schools celebrating white Eurocentrism so their grandchildren can attend them.
12
@WmC, the 'chain of schools celebrating white Eurocentrism' already exists. It's called American history.
Sheesh. There isn't a corner of America that doesn't trumpet the glory of white men. How many statues to black glory do you see, from sea to shining sea?
So, no. Black people have to carve out spaces where they can feel good about their blackness, and evidently even that will draw uninformed, shallow resentment from folks like you.
4
It really seems strange that every time black people want to do something to teach their children pride in themselves and their race, there is an outcry from some whites. This is ridiculous. Why do some people have a problem with racial groups, whether African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, or whomever, trying to instill pride in their children and promote the good things they embody as people and contributing American citizens? Why does teaching black culture have to be a knock on white culture? Demanding that racial groups have to buy into white culture to be accepted creates the basis for racism and discrimination. The people seeing this as a problem are the same ones who have no problem with all-white religious or charter schools teaching white kids to embrace white or Judeo-Christian culture. Yet they fear black children being taught Afro-Centric history and culture. Why? If accepting the culture of the dominant group is the key to acceptance why aren't whites immersed in Native American culture?
232
Is it wrong to note the hypocrisy? Consider: Who in this day and age would accept an all-white school? Racism exists in all shades.
I also don't recall separate but equal ever working out so well.
54
@John Valentine Sure, as long as you're OK with every racial group showing vocal pride in their race.
22
@John Valentine shame on you - change the wording from black to white and see how you would react - identity politics at its simplest and worst
28
The Bostics from Bedford Stuyvesant started a school in the 1940's named Brooklyn Junior Academy loccated on Quincy Street. BJA would be considered an Afrocentric school today. We could recite the Negro Anthem, "We Shall Overcome" by the time we were in nursery school. Black history dominated the curriculum. Our teachers looked like us and they genuinely loved us and wanted us to succeed. At the time, I believe it was either Channel 2 or 4 came to visit the school to find out why all of these Black children were being accepted into the elite high schools in NYC that are still considered elite today. Many of them being the old Black children attending these schools.
We aspired to be doctors, lawyers, engineers and were told we could do anything as long as we worked hard. I attended in the early 70's until about 7th grade. The school accepted students from nursery until 8th grade. I am still in touch with many of the students from BJA thanks to Facebook. Many of the BJA alumni are thankful to the Bostics for starting such an innovative school. We realize today how lucky we were to be part of such a great experiment.
20
@Josefina Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I've learned a lot about the long history of Afrocentric schooling in Bed-Stuy/central Brooklyn that is being reconsidered and revived now in light of the citywide debate about integration.
5
Self segregation has been acceptable for whites (and whoever can afford to pay) for centuries. Private schools, religious schools, single sex schools, home schooling, etc. Since many are closed off from public view, who knows what they teach? Obviously they all have some sort of mission that they are pursuing; primarily ensuring that their culture or religion becomes instilled in young minds and goes forward in history. And for the most part, nobody cares. Even when what they teach is arguably detrimental to human society & the planet. Sadly & shamefully, when a story about Black people doing it pops up in the NYT, the critique knives come out.
5
Attempting to give voice to young Native American, Black students on a Indian Res, I was fired. Later I was informed if I stopped teaching equality I could have my job back. I refused.
5
For context, it might be nice to know what school district that was. I grew up in a very white area, but back when I was in grade and middle school, there was a substantial amount of cultural instruction, although admittedly it was still awfully eurocentric. There were still nasty little racists in the school, but many of us learned much from what we were taught, and some of us managed to not become the culturally inoculated racists our parents were.
Worth a try. Within reasonable bounds. An analogy, Catholic schools in the 50s and 60s. Of course, we had all the required, typical classes albeit with fewer resources than the public schools. But, in addition to an hour of religion per day, our books and teaching emphasized the Catholic aspects of history or English. Certain books were chosen vice other books. All were good books but the choices emphasized the Catholic aspects. Simple example, in our world, the Father of the American Navy was John Barry, a Catholic, not John Paul Jones. This education worked well. Oh, and we had discipline.
@Tim Dowd "...our books and teaching emphasized the Catholic aspects of history or English. Certain books were chosen vice other books. All were good books but the choices emphasized the Catholic aspects. "
Perhaps in Sicily or wherever you went yo Catholic school, but this was not the case at the 3 Catholic schools I attended while growing up.
I'm a strong liberal who hates racism but supports affirmative action as a necessary evil given our nation's culture and history. However, can someone explain why it SHOULDN'T bother me that a certain race of people is promoting segregation in the name of preserving racial "pride" and racial "power"? As an old white guy I don't pretend to understand the plight of every person of color, but I do have a lifetime of empathy which I do exercise and explore. Once conclusion I've come to is that people are tribal and they tend to distrust what they don't understand and they can't understand what they are not exposed to. Segregation in any form certainly has the potential to do harm than good.
9
@Tim L. It shouldn't bother you because it's not segregation. Any race can apply, and most of the parents who enroll their kids there are interested in Afro-centric approach. Like a Montessori school, only those interested in that teaching approach would apply.
Do you believe that black culture is prominently taught in America's schools? Your conclusion about tribalism flies in the face of 300 years of American history regarding treatment of blacks.
It's weird that you think children taught at this school don't see enough white culture in the real world, you are sadly uninformed. It's not a bubble, people, it's just a school kids go to in the morning and come home on the bus afterward, just like all kids do, when they learn white superiority at THEIR school! Relax.
2
Taking pride in your race, or any other attribute you didn't acquire through your own volition, is a terrible mistake with grave consequences. By taking pride in your skin color (or nationality, ethnicity, gender, etc), you're only perpetuating the idea that these traits matter, and that these traits are primary to your identity and self-worth, and it will be a bitter disappointment when others don't share your valuation of these un-earned traits.
The antidote to racism is not racial pride, the antidote is to reject the premise that race is primary to your identity, and move on as best you can to focus on developing real skills to be truly proud of, skills which will actually help you in life. When racists try to make the conversation about race, don't agree to this, don't let them own the conversation in this way!
Bill Gates isn't admired for his race, but rather for his achievements. Taking pride in your inherited traits is easy but counterproductive. Working to build real skills is hard but an immensely more rewarding life path. Education does a real disservice to encourage the former at the expense of the latter.
9
There are millions of Whites across the country who have attended all-white or mostly white schools, but still failed to achieved a respectable level of education. And meanwhile, there are hundred of thousands of Blacks (cannot say millions because of the smaller population of Blacks compared to Whites) who attended all-black or mostly black schools, and yet have achieved high levels of education.
Certainly it is true that White education attainment levels are higher than that of Blacks, but the question is: what is the biggest factor that drives the difference? It appears it cannot be race.
1
George Wallace would be so proud!!!
The same year The Greenbook goes mainstream so everyone can learn how racially divided the south was- NYC celebrates segregation. Isn’t this exactly what George Wallace did?
We evolved as a society in the 70’s, 80’s and the early 90’s by accepting we were all different and yet all the same. This latest trend takes us away from that progress and back into the “us” and “them”. Truly sad.
6
Integration ultimately entails blacks more frequently being a genuine statistical minority in their towns (how would you like to be surrounded by 80% of people not "like you"?) and their culture being reduced to the church they go to and what foods they eat on their special holidays, like what happens to most Americans of Jewish, Italian, Russian, Chinese, etc descent a couple generations in. If this is the goal, then the black community needs to tolerate the dilution of their identity and accept that the public schools are not going to tailor their curriculum and teacher demographics any more than for any other minority.
However, given our history, I don't see African or Native Americans under any obligation to integrate into the larger society if they do not see fit. If the goal is autonomy, then the schools in this article sound like a great idea. However, there are tradeoffs to not being fully integrated, and it's likely that the current inequalities will persist.
2
When I hear of teachers cutting off black childrens' hair, literally walking on black childrens' backs to "remind" them of how it felt to be aboard a slave ship or teachers reprimanding black children for speaking in a confident manner, I think that public schools (even private schools) are not safe for black children. Afrocentric schools and homeschooling are better alternatives. Black parents are right not to expose their children to the biases, hidden or explicit, of teachers and administrators.
8
@Lynn in DC Well said.
I don't have children, but when it was a possibility, I had always planned on having my children educated in the Caribbean (where my parents are from). I grew up in predominately White schools and couldn't bear the thought of leaving a child of mine to the tender mercies of a system designed to beat them down. In the Caribbean they don't need special classes about Black history because their history IS Black history. It's a sad commentary that I thought I needed to send my children away to be well-educated and treated with dignity and respect.
When I was a child, it was considered a step forward for Black children to attend White schools. We were the canaries. Every Black adult I know who had a similar experience have horror stories about how they were abused by their classmates AND their teachers.
6
It’s interesting to read Richard Carranza’s support for this sort of segregation. Didn’t he recently announce rejection of high achieving Asian students in favor of including kids who cannot pass the required tests to get into Stuyvesant? I hope Asian parents see this and make an Asian centric charter high school where their kids will actually be challenged, educated, and not discriminated against because of their study habits. Can’t wait to hear Carranza’s enthusiastic support for such a school, or will he bleat about racism and unfair advantages?
20
Four hundred years of racism that has deprived people of their opportunities to prosper results it reciprocal racial attitudes that are passed down through many generations and determine how people see each other. It’s what people do, all people. The racism that prevailed in this country for centuries was rarely questioned until the middle of the last century. What was not so clearly described at that time or now is the reciprocal attitudes that prevailed amongst those discriminated against by that racism. They largely reacted in kind.
The instinctive response that we have towards our oppressors is resentment, mistrust, and stereotyping of them as somehow basically different from ourselves. That those attitudes are only reasonable dominates our perspectives.
Race is a cultural artifact not a biological fact of nature. Ending racism will end the significance of race. It will be reduced to just a few apparent and relatively minor differences reflecting people’s ancestors and nothing more. When that has happened the attitudes which reflect racial misperceptions will become starkly apparent to all.
1
I am rather torn on this issue.
As a white woman who went to schools with the traditional male-centric history classes, male dominant sports etc, I can see what a difference it would have been for me to go to an all female school.
Sigh....
2
So many issues here. I used to teach in a school in Brooklyn. Mostly black but a good number of Puerto Rican kids too. The kids would argue and clown each other. But when it got testy, the Puerto Rican kids would reach for their trump card -- the black kids skin tone or hair. That was like a nuclear bomb and the black kids immediately would slink away defeated. I don't say this to down Puerto Rican kids. It's just that white supremacy and black inferiority is so deeply ingrained in all people, black people included. Malcolm X said that integration would never work until black people were seen as equal and saw themselves as equal. Integration in the abstract is a great idea, but the concept of black inferiority is so strong in so many minds that integration ends up being a form of whitewashing that black kids struggle with. Then you get overreactions like the school that teaches about Harriet Tubman 200 days a year. Such difficult issues here....
3
How about having children take pride in their accomplishments rather than an accident of nature? Besides, few Americans are fully black anymore. Compared to people currently living in Africa, American black people look more like Barack Obama and surely have some Caucasian genes mixed in. Besides, young children are colorblind. Remember the two preschoolers, one black and one white, who got the same haircut so in their own eyes they could be twins? That story was all over social media. The last thing we need is more polarization.
8
Ethnically based schools is fine as long as they are privately funded.
5
When is skin color going to be irrelevant?
5
@barbara I have been wondering the same thing for 36 years (50 years old). I'm worried that the answer might be "never". People are visual and they are tribal. Not all people, but enough of them. And I'm not talking about just Whites or Asians. I mean Blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Muslims, Males, Females, etc.
Here's my theory on why this divisionism keeps on rolling: People have a need to feel special. Saying "I belong to humanity" or "I'm a human being" makes some people feel special, or all people feel special to some degree. But saying "I am a strong female!" or "I am Black and I love my hair!" or "I am Jewish and part of a special set of people with a long tradition" or "I am Asian and work hard" or whatever affirmation exists in said person's mind, it is additionally special because it distinguishes them from "others". Comparing oneself to plants and other animals, saying "I am a human being" doesn't provide this same strong sense of "otherism" that belonging to groups does. It's ego.
Generations from now there will be many people who have an ancestry DNA test that shows the whole planet. Unfortunately, because of the strength of otherism, there will continue to be pockets of racially, culturally, and religiously segregated people. Further, as pockets of the world become completely integrated racially, the power of the otherism may actually INCREASE. I call this the denominator effect: The closer people get to "others", the more alluring otherism becomes.
2
Barbara
“When is skin color going to be irrelevant?”
Perhaps when Black Americans aren’t murdered by police on a daily basis.
Perhaps when white people stop calling the cops on people while “living black”.
5
Given where we still are in 2019, I choose not to give any weight to white people's feedback. The vast majority of white parents' complacency is why it all continues. So please, white folks, first get you and your kid's mental houses in order. Then start emulating what you say you want, who you say you are. Bring it to life.
8
I will just share what a downtown school administrator said to me more than 35 years ago when I was trying to get my child into a good pre-K program and I apologized for the many calls to their office.
"Don't apologize. If YOU don't advocate for your child's education, who will?"
3
"Black Lives Matter" brought me to tears when I first heard it because its direct simplicity was so powerful -- and heartbreaking. I worked it into my first "vanity" license plate and pass out BLM buttons all over town. My mostly-lily-white church has a huge BLM banner beside the pulpit. We seriously study white privilege (and fragility) and have dozens of members who take concrete actions every week in the community as supporters/allies -- many have done so for decades. We've always fought for things to be different.
There are forces in some white communities that are retrograde. There are also determined, quieter parades of citizens of every color who are marching into social justice activism the likes of which we haven't seen since the 60s.
If our culture can evolve to heal America's original sin, redressing the wealth gap and educational outcomes disparities from Appalachia to inner cities will be what gets us there. We're not post-racial as that's not only ridiculous but boring. Our cultural diversity IS our wealth. At some point, people will learn that valuing people over stuff is at the core of our survival. At some point, pure materialism will lose its shine.
2
As a parent in a mixed race household, I find the emphasis in today's society on segro-cheerleading race and gender quite disheartening. Nationalism in any form tends to lead to bad outcomes for society.
Should school curriculums teach a wide variety of histories and current events? Yes. Obviously. But math and science and critical thinking skills are color blind. I so wish we as a society would stop being so divided and unite as one humanity. Sigh. I'm 50 years old and have been witness to this nationalistic divisionist otherism for as long as I can remember.
16
The article failed to mention that there are a number of schools in which African-Americans perform at comparable or better levels: charter schools. The various charter networks throughout the City show only minimal differences in educational performance, as defined by State tests, among the races within them. In fact at many of the highest performing charter schools, African-Americans perform at higher levels than Caucasians do at the highest achieving City-run public schools. What's more, they are integrated and affirming.
I believe that segregated schools do a disservice to our communities, our City, and our nation. We should be striving for affirmation through educational excellence that will create well-informed and properly educated citizens and leaders. It is a shame that Mayor de Blasio has put ideology over education, and seeks to limit successful charters from expanding. It is also a shame that the Times either missed an opportunity or just ignored the reality of how well charter schools perform across all races in the City.
3
This is just sad. Are we giving up? I went to city schools under a desegregation order and for a time, we really had integration - a word we don’t even see anymore. A whole generation of lawmakers and educators fought hard to erase racial barriers - not race - in an effort to bring different people together. So idealistic and aspirational, but really difficult . Too difficult I guess. Now we’re back to resegregating under the more palatable name of identity. But it eventually leads to the same place as white segregationists aiming to preserve white identity, even if it’s motivated by good intentions.
13
If this creates educated, happy, well adjusted people, then I am for it. I wish you the best success!
2
What if it does all three but in the process creates division and distrust of “others?” That is a distinct possibility. Be careful what you wish for.
6
"This is a great idea and should be expanded thru out!"
Said white supremacists around the country.
13
This may not be the best idea. Imagine the collected hashtag screams if a white-centric school was started.
19
@The North
Was? All-white academies were started in the South in the 1950s-1960s in response to the Brown decision. No one screamed, it was business as usual.
4
@The North
There are literally thousands of white-centric schools all over this country. You know this as 'schools'.
6
Didn't the United States Supreme Court have something to say about schools "explicitly designed for black children?"
6
I think this is great (my race = Caucasion). In addition, I think the school should ground all kids (all schools for that matter) in genetics so we can all rebut poisonous bigotry, debate to counter the the poisonous rhetoric, self defense, and life skills to deal with all the living while black incidents.
2
Yeah. This diversity idea was a really bad one. We need to divide America by race, gender religion and and whatever other things we can find to divide us. That should work.
35
@Langej
America is one of the few nations on earth that has never had religious wars. The Founders knew what they were doing in the Establishment Clause. We seem determined to undo it all with political/tribal wars. The days of lynching individuals because of their race are over, but we may be entering dark times when individuals are seized and lynched because of their political affiliation. Don't believe me? Look at the comments in the "conservative/panhandle" story.
3
Black centric schools seems wrongheaded and divisive. ANY minority group which does not fully integrate with the majority will be severely marginalized by that majority. Sadly, black centric schools is not moving the ball toward full integration with whites.
13
I have read in these pages that New York public schools are highly segregated, which is explained as an evil that is holding African American children back. Now I read that the answer is not only physical segregation but also intellectual segregation.
22
White people have been using the charter school system to create segregated schools for DECADES. They might hide the purpose behind religion or some other red herring but everyone, especially the White parents who send their White children to these schools, knows what the real purpose is. As usual, when Black parents decide to play the same game, the howls of 'self-segregation' start. The only time White people mention 'Brown v. Board of Education' in a positive manner is when Black people start doing something positive for their children.
Ever since integration became the law of the land, White people have been working overtime to keep their children as far away from Black/Brown children as they can. So why do they care what Black parents do to educate their children? I don't believe that it has anything to do with 'educational standards' since the majority of Americans have absolutely no problem with Black kids being taught in substandard schools with hopelessly outdated schoolbooks, or no schoolbooks at all.
I can only conclude that the thing that bothers White critics most is the idea that Black children might grow up with a positive self-image and knowledge about who they are and where they came from. American society has been built on tearing Black people down since the beginning. Look at the outrage the words 'Black Lives Matter' bring out. The idea that Black people have value is enough to make many White Americans blind with rage. Sad.
230
@laura174
"White people have been using the charter school system"
I don't think that generalization is true. DC public schools have many charter schools, for example, and these are not used to give advantage to white students. In fact, I live in a mostly white suburg outside of DC, and it is not even true here. As with any public institution, the demographics matter.
26
@laura174
I'm also confused by how whites have been using the charter school system to segregate blacks. In NYC the charter system has been extremely successful, and in poorer majority black areas has succeeded in raising test scores dramatically not only as compared with similar socio-economic cohorts, but also as compared to wealthier neighborhoods.
In fact, a number of the newer charter schools are now being created in wealthier neighborhoods, and are racially and economically very mixed (since they service the district at large). Why would you consider charter schools to be a form of white-imposed segregation?
22
@laura174
There are many black-majority charter schools as well. They exist because public schools have failed black children. Open your eyes.
16
Good education is important for everybody, but an afro-centric school? What if there were a Euro-centric school, that specifically taught about "white" heros and heroines? Obviously the latter couldn't happen and would never be permitted, because society would (correctly!) reject the idea immediately. What makes a "black" -oriented school any more acceptable?
More racism is NOT the answer... except for the white nationalist/supremacists leaders. They love this stuff; it makes it easier to recruit "white" people to their hateful cause.
Reading this article, I felt like I was reading about an institution to help Trump's re-election through fomenting more racism and hate.
14
@Astrochimp
"What is there were a Euro-centric school, that specifically taught about 'white' heroes and heroines?" In America, what you described has been and continues to be called a school. That's the point people miss. The majority doesn't have to act consciously to create what in effect is the same safe and affirming space for white kids that these black parents are trying to create for their kids.
10
@Chris: That implies that what the kids are told is significant about those people is that they were white, as opposed to, say, having discovered important mathematical theorems or laws of physics, or composed great music, or advanced significant philosophical ideas.
If what a kid gets from studying the work of some great thinker is an affirmation of their own whiteness, then that is pretty small-minded of that student. And if parents want their kids to learn such things in order to receive such affirmation, that too is small-minded. But I don't believe that many people see things in that reductive way; or, at least, they should not. I remember learning about Stravinsky and Shostakovich in elementary school, but I didn't think I had to be Russian for the lesson to apply to me.
12
@Chris Racism is not the answer. Stop it with the racism. We all celebrate the Obamas (other than Fox "News," other radical-right outlets, white supremacists etc.) and speaking as someone who voted for Barack Obama twice, I know that Obama knew better than to be racist, as did both Clintons.
3
What is the difference between this and segregation? What happens when whites decide to do the same? For goodness sake, am I the only one who sees how dangerous this is?
17
@Oakwood they are and have been. Convenient to forget the backlash to Brown vs Board when white people FLED any sort of integrated school system and created their own
1
I hope the influence of a more afrocentric curriculum spreads, so that white children also have the opportunity to learn more about the richness and depth of African and African-American civilizations and cultures and to overcome prejudices instilled by too many curricula that exclude or erase non-Western cultures. For instance, my uncle has absolutely no idea of the major contributions of African culture to American music, art, language, and cuisine, and subscribes to the stupid idea that only Europeans have "culture"--unfortunately, I think he has a good deal of company in his ignorance. The project based on the masks from the Ivory Coast looks amazing--beautiful and powerful! I wish all the best to this new approach to empowering and educating children of color and hopefully one day white children as well.
154
@Allecram Thanks so much for your comment, which gets at another big question here - what is the role of culturally responsive education/ethnic studies in public schools? The city's schools chancellor, Richard Carranza, championed ethnic studies when he ran San Francisco's public school district. A recent study found that that work boosted academic performance for students: https://news.stanford.edu/2016/01/12/ethnic-studies-benefits-011216/
13
@Allecram
Schools have limited time and resources, the challenge for all is which accomplishments to emphasize . . .
3
@Allecram-it's not even just European culture, it's some of Europe. Scandinavia is ignored except those those darn, pillaging Vikings. We really need to have a good world culture curriculum for the education and enlightenment of all. Add it to the curriculum of the world's religions and we might have a chance of understanding each other.
5
If something is ok for one race to do but not for another, then it is still racist. If this was a school for whites or Asians then it would completely be considered racist but it's ok because it's for blacks? It just doesn't work that way. I do appreciate that the schools accept students of all colors in terms of applications, I think that's great but you are still talking about self-segregation and if white or Asian people did it, then there would be law suits.
If these kids are bright, they'll be bright regardless of which school they go to. Adults don't do kids any favors by limiting their interactions with the real world. It's better to teach a child that racism is wrong but that there are still racists out in society and how to deal with that than separating them from the problem and they get shocked when they enter the real world.
13
I guess I feel a little chagrined that the tear-gassings and beatings that I and tens of thousands of others took as we fought for - and I mean fought for - desegregation in the 1960s and early '70s were for naught.
For us, there was only one race - the human race. I still believe that until we stop viewing our melting-pot culture in terms us and them, fear and hatred and violence will be a continuing plague.
I still believe the more one gets to know another person the less skin color and ethnic background become a point of division.) I just don't see one-time violently opposed foes Catholics and Protestants or Italians and Irish harboring mutual hatred any longer.)
Should African American history and accomplishment be included in all American curriculum everywhere – even in all-white, hispanic, Asian and jewish settings? Absolutely. But here's hoping that Shakespeare, Voltaire, Kant and Socrates get some classroom mentions as well.
Over on the right, evil people are exploiting our differences.The best way to fight that is eliminating emphasis on our differences. Ludicrous, divisive concepts like 'cultural appropriation' are bullets for evil's guns.
“Segregation leads to inequality,” said Andre Perry, a fellow at the Brookings Institution. “You can’t just do that away. If you’re going to ignore this issue, it will come back to haunt you.” True that.
9
These comments are showing a lot of misconception and it’s clear many have not read the article. Couple points, only based on content in article:
— these schools are open to all races, and many different races attend. There is a special CURRICULUM that highlights African-American achievement.
— to people making the point about test scores, &c. These schools may be below standard, but I’d imagine so are many if not most of the free schools serving their geographic and socioeconomic population. So the relevant question is are they BETTER than those schools, suggested but not confirmed in article. Also, maybe not too unexpected that a school in its first or second year of existence would struggle; I’d be curious to see scores in years 5-6.
6
Also to the “well, does that then mean we can have schools celebrating white heroes?” commentators - i think the problem is that the default option in US schools is 95% white heroes already (in no smart due to a very ugly history with regard to race)
1
Another placebo. Black is getting more beautiful all the time; give it an A, put it on a resume, and find a homeless shelter.
Let me spell this out: every effort to base education and student grouping on identity patronizes students and parents, and cheats the students of an education worthy of the name. In America, the underlying premise of such efforts is finger-pointing: blame whites and their white society. There is much to blame about America's education system, including disparities among identity groups, but the quality of education is declining for whites as well as non-whites. If non-white adults want better for their children, they should make education, not credentials, matter--and skip the alluring distractions of identity grouping and identity-oriented curriculums.
13
The new ethic! It is socially correct for non-white children to be taught to feel special and to favor racial segregation, but evil and anti-social for white children to experience the same???
I also wonder the same thing about gender segregation in education. All-women colleges are socially correct, but all- male colleges are anti-social.
I guess I had it all wrong. I thought that our goal was to encourage reduced social bias based on race and gender. Apparently that only applies to education of white males.
18
One thing this school will prove, without a doubt, is that when parents are heavily invested in and involved with their children's education, the outcome is much better. Since the beginning of humanity, older people have passed knowledge down to younger people. In today's highly specialized economy, where education is critical, this is all too true: Children whose parents spend time reviewing homework do better in school. Black and Hispanic children who come from homes where there is an emphasis on education do much better than those that do not. The same is true for White and Asian children.
2
As a former (for 19 years) head of a school in NYC, I've been watching education with keen interest for many years.
I applaud the parents and others who are taking educational matters into their own hands. Public education has failed communities of color for decades. Public schools in communities of color are underfunded and over-measured. Charter schools, like Success Academies, Democracy Prep and KIPP tend toward abusive with their "no excuses" nonsense.
The funniest comments in this thread are from white folks (I'm a white folk) who think Afrocentric is an aberration and we would NEVER condone white-centric schools. American education has been white-centric since - well, forever. White folks are blind to their privilege and cultural dominance. They think white America, white values, white history are America and that "others" are fortunate to be invited into "their" wonderful country.
It would be lovely to have dynamic, progressive, diverse and joyful schools in all communities. But we don't. And if I were a parent of a black child, I'd be taking a very close look at this option.
11
@Barking Doggerel
Charter schools are abusive? That's a strange definition of schools that get students to achieve at significantly higher levels than almost all public schools, even those in very wealthy, predominately white neighborhoods. I think what is the most abusive aspect of the NYC school system is that it locks many children of color in failing schools who have to seek redress in self-segregated schools.
It would be so much better for our city if the Mayor and Chancellor put children ahead of ideology and allowed for greater expansion of successful and integrated charter networks.
3
@TGO A troll for Eva, perhaps?
Yes, some charter schools are abusive. "No excuses" disciplinary practices violate children and are ineffective and inconsistent with best child development practices. I do this for a living. This is not just an opinion.
I certainly understand the desire to provide the best educational experiences to your children. I also understand the desire to expose your children to their ethnic heritage. But educational segregation on the basis of race, even voluntary segregation, is just plain wrong-headed. Now more than ever our future as a species relies on our ability to live and work in a world of many ethnic backgrounds. This is no time to tell your children that they’re special because of their skin color.
2
I'm sorry, but how is this not a least a bit tainted by racism? Would the converse be tolerated for a second? Would it be fine to have schools in struggling, primarily white, rural America focus on the whiteness of the students?
10
This is a dangerous path. While racism exists in every corner of this country, its most fervent in areas that are racially homogeneous. When people live, work, and go to school in diverse areas, it becomes apparently clear that it is not the color of someone's skin that creates their character. Segregation of any type creates separation and that creates racism.
What is really needed is to fully fund our public school system and give added fiscal support to urban areas. That is one area where there clearly is discrimination in public education. Furthermore, I wonder if these charter schools are profiting off this idea. Many charter schools operate for profit or hold onto surplus $, which further diverts the limited funds needed in urban public school systems.
1
ok to try it if you want. But where are the stats showing it works in turning out educated children?
4
People bonding over common culture? What is the world coming to?
I believe this is a wider spread phenomenon that is currently understood. Immigrants, too, often favor closer associations with their own ethnic groups. I hope this is explained to the many liberal white sociologists wringing their hands over the systematic oppression that this represents to them.
35
I don't know why public funds should be directed toward educational programs that put a focus on black culture in particular. The notion that black kids have a "need" for such an emphasis seems to me as misguided as the idea that Irish-American kids need Irish-centric schools or Italian-American kids need Italian-centric schools. Or, at any rate, if kids need to boost their self-esteem through ethnic or racial identification, it should not come from communal tax dollars. I'm sorry, but I still believe in the melting pot.
I don't believe that substandard education for minorities stems primarily from a lack of resources. The problems are behavioral. If the main issue for new teachers is classroom management, that should tell us something. A kid told me, "Why should I learn that math? That's not for me. I'm black." Many, or at least some, schools suffer from a lack of the order, structure, and discipline that make real learning possible in a group setting. The tragedy is that the kids, in many cases, become their own worst enemy.
11
I think this is a wonderful idea.
Too often education is applied generically as a one-size fits all formula, when the needs of every community are so obviously different. Provided that certain standards are met, all communities should have a say in how their children are educated.
If black communities recognize that self-esteem, empowerment, and a shared connection to a culture both present and historic are important and meaningful to their community, more power to them. Many other communities have identified the same need.
Most reform and conservative Jews (myself included), attend Hebrew school a couple times a week in addition to "normal" public school, and many attend dedicated Hebrew elementary schools instead. I can't say child me was thrilled about it, but I am now grateful to have an added level of connection to my Jewish peers and our community as a whole.
In a United States where we have Greek schools, Catholic Schools, Hebrew Schools, Korean Schools, to say that there shouldn't be Afro-Centric schools is akin to saying that Blackness should not be celebrated.
Integration into the world at large is unavoidable, but who is better suited for it - a person who takes pride in their community, themselves, and their identity, or a person who may not feel comfortable in their own skin, having been left to soak in their set of circumstances in american culture in 2019?
5
But I thought students performed better in diverse environments?
14
With that said, it would be nice to see Eurocentric schools developed throughout the USA with emphasis places on English, German, Norway and Austrian history. Further let them emphasize all of the creative and innovative developers from these areas. Last make American history a priority. Standing for the national anthem and saying the pledge with emphasis on God would be a must.
9
Sounds like you’ve described public schools across the country. Box checked.
3
99.9% of public schools in America are already Eurocentric
4
@Sven Gall
What you seem to be describing is not "Euro", but "North Euro," i.e. Germanic/Nordic. Greek, Russian, Italian, and Spanish people would certainly notice the difference and feel excluded; on top of that, you'd be leaving out the most significant parts of European history--Ancient Greece, Rome, The Catholic Church and its influence, the Renaissance, and exploration to the Western hemisphere.
1
Frankly, my white children have been a minority in most of their NYC schools. They have also spent much, much history time on Black history and civil rights - which is good, but it would help them to also spend time on World histories that include ancient, medieval Europe and the Renaissance, - which have greatly and actually affected the culture they live in. It also wouldn't hurt them to learn more American history about groups other than African Americans.
Moreover - only 15 percent of school children in NYC are "white" so in order to integrate, what, sprinkle a few in every class? The best integration is economic integration if you really want to lift people and have true integration.
46
It is sad that we are so divided that we now voluntarily choose segregation. Everyone wants what is best for their kids but we seem to be growing more and more apart.
8
As a parent, I'm usually hesitant to say anything about other parents' choices (especially when they are dealing with issues that I don't have to). But I do wonder if developmentally it wouldn't have been better for Ms. Favors' son to learn how to resolve issues of racism with his peers and move on than to self-segregate. It sounds like the school didn't support that, unfortunately.
7
I wish these schools the best of luck. Though I am not black, I attended unintentionally afro-centric schools on Chicago's south side growing up. Every history class was black history class, or had a strong black history component (which was great!). We celebrated black culture and were taught to respect and cherish it. But the larger culture was still pervasive (stereotypes re: both black and white abounded). And the constant drumbeating felt a little defensive, if anything (kids are smart, they see through agendas). This is a start but we as a country have to do more.
6
This seems like it has a lot more to do with someone's political agenda, etc.IIs this school designed to make their students only comfortable around other black people? After going here, then they can go to a HBCU and never have to deal with other races.
8
How are these schools funded?
If privately funded, like the Catholic an d Jewish school there can be no objection.
If they are publicly funded with tax money then the same thing should apply to Catholic, Jewish, and white schools too.
12
"schools explicitly designed for black children"
That's chilling. There's nothing wonderful about segregation when adults do it, but forcing children to learn and adopt the principles of tribalism is a huge and tragic step backward. The Balkanization of America continues. Does any American, any longer, consider himself a human being first and a Democrat, black, or lesbian second?
25
So let me get this straight....
An "Afrocentric" school is progressive, but a "white" school is racist.
What if Rachel Dolezal wanted to send her kids there. Would they be allowed in? Hows about mine?
This does not sound like progress to me.
I think it would be more beneficial to start an elective "Afro-centric" education program in a racially mixed school. It would be beneficial to all races who are interested to take such courses. To limit an entire school to one race is as exclusionary as full segregation.
19
You may have missed it in the article, but these schools are NOT closed to any race.
4
From the article:
“Children of any race may apply to an Afrocentric school, though they are overwhelmingly black. Some have sizable numbers of Hispanic students... but the schools typically have few or no white applicants.”
4
@megachulo
The article says they'll accept any race. Let's see how many diversity-loving white liberals take them up on it.
7
I love this! I went to an afrocentric preschool + elementary school and it built my confidence-- which I needed once I transferred to my diverse neighborhood school.
4
Why are these articles always so light on research/data/facts about academics? Ember, for example, has both English and Math scores far under state and city average- with only 35% meeting Math standards. That doesn't tell the whole story as the scores are above the district averages and it sounds like a dynamic school. We all love Beyonce and Colin Kaepernick, but it would be great if these articles talked about the academic enrichment being developed, not just empowerment these schools are working on/achieving.
44
My children went to a wonderful preschool that set the stage for a love of learning and a belief in caring for others. There’s a lot to think about with this article, but my main take away after reading about this particular preschool in Brooklyn, is that every child in our country should have access to a nurturing, well run preschool. Imagine if we trained enough teachers and put enough money behind quality preschool for all? More kids would start K on an equal footing and with better practice on
“how to do school”. If testing was built into this preschool system, more kids would be flagged earlier for a learning disability and get the help they need. It’s when kids feel left behind, or inadequate, that the gaps start.
3
Hurrah for charter schools!
2
Reading this article and the comments makes this black man very grateful that he never had children.
4
These schools hugely underperform their integrated neighbors - a recent study suggests that only one-third are meeting basic state standards.
Seems like a high price to be able to chant I love My Black Skin at the cost of basic arithmetic and reading.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12111-015-9322-0
Regretably you need to be a uni student to access the complete article
26
Bravo. They tried integration and it hasn’t worked. These children need to go to schools where they don’t have to face daily racism!
4
“I love myself!” the group of mostly white children shouted in unison. “I love my hair, I love my skin!” When it was time to settle down, their teacher raised her fist in a white power salute. The students did the same, and the room hushed. As children filed out of the cramped school auditorium on their way to class, they walked by posters of Neil Armstrong and Neil Patrick Harris.
It was a typical morning at Ember Charter School in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, a white-centric school that sits in a squat building on a quiet block in a neighborhood long known as a center of white political power.
Though New York City has tried to desegregate its schools in fits and starts since the 1954 Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, the school system is now one of the most segregated in the nation. But rather than pushing for integration, some white parents in Bedford-Stuyvesant are choosing an alternative: schools explicitly designed for white children.
Why does the New York Times celebrate division and racial segregation?
44
@Alexander: here we go again: false equivalency.
6
At this point, I am all for separatism.
If some people want to separate, I think that process needs to begin.
Obviously, they have no interest in integrating into America and need to be repatriated where they feel more comfortable.
I will be happy to help these people leave, regardless of their reason for seeking separation.
I am, of course, not suggesting that black people do not belong in America, but anyone who wants separation, should be separated
6
@James Remove African Americans from America and there is no America. If they take their culture with them, you have no blues, no jazz, no rock and roll. I'd say you'd be left with country and western music, but since a Black man taught Hank Williams how to play the guitar..
Fought All Day for Equal Education - Now They Want Separate
7
After Brown v Board segregation got a bad rap, especially among liberal whites, who were eager to put a Band-Aid on centuries of white supremacy b ytaking on the task of teaching black kids en masse (after denying them the right to education for most of American history). What a disastrous plan!
In his podcast Revisionist History Malcolm Gladwell reveals how Brown v Board’s push for integration led to the mass firing of black teachers. This when the decisive argument against segregation came from the doll test, which proved the damage from white supremacy was to the black psyche, not the black intellect. That’s why having just one black teacher in the course of K-12 improves black student achievement. Representation matters, especially on a psychological level.
The post-Brown approach to segregation was largely wrong. Encouraging black kids to attend white schools, with mostly white teachers, isn’t the answer.
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@Deepa Gladwells' research was an eye opener! If only white people (I am white) could get passed their determination to have everyone in the world see things through their lens.
I applaud all efforts to help children find their way to a healthy adulthood where they have the emotional bandwith to deal with life and all of the injustices that come with it (like a bad diagnosis or a natural disaster).
We have to give everyone access to tools and building blocks to make our way in the world. Keep an open mind people. If you haven't walked a mile in someone else's shoes, let the experiment play out!
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Seems like an imperfect situation with some social risk. On the other hand, I could see a parent simply feeling unsafe sending their kid to a school system that seems to criminalize them. First one hopes to be safe at all. Some say, what about white centric schools? We love to generalize and some seem very suspicious when general rules cannot be applied. Is there potential for negativity when you become centric to your own race identity? I would say always. But is there some upside that could make it worth it? I would say, full stop, if you are white in America and think it is even approaching a good idea to send your kids to a white centric school you are a fool. On the other hand the risk for black children in the conventional system are pretty scary so this proposition becomes more complicated for a parent of black child. This could be a good thing or a bad one. I have no idea how it plays out. I certainly believe it is possible to live in a world where people have specific identities and can express their individualities but also have common brother/sisterhood and not be hostile to anyone, generally speaking. How do we get there from here?
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Ancient Egyptians weren’t “black.” The mom was teaching her son incorrectly.
“But a group of international researchers, using unique methods, have overcome the barriers to do just that. They found that the ancient Egyptians were most closely related to the peoples of the Near East, particularly from the Levant.”
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Hispanics can be of any race or any combination of races. What makes them Hispanic is that one of their parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc. immigrated from a country in which Spanish was the dominant language. Blue-eyed blonde actress Cameron Dias is Hispanic. There is no reason to treat Hispanic students differently than students whose parents, grandparents or great grandparents spoke some language other than Spanish.
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@William Case
And...they weren't slaves! I always wondered how "Black" and "Hispanic" became almost interchangeable.
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@Max
In the 2010 United States Census, 50.5 million Americans (16.3% of the total population) listed themselves as ethnically Hispanic or Latino. Of those, 53.0% (26.7 million) self-identified as racially white. The remaining respondents listed their races as: some other race 36.7%, two or more races (multiracial) 6.0%, Black or African American 2.5%, American Indian and Alaska Native 1.4%, Asian 0.4%, and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander 0.1%."
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@William Case
Thanks for the stats but my main point was that Hispanics (whatever their skin tone) somehow got lumped in with Blacks as if they had the same history/experience.
Having been of the generation where in the military, as a result of the draft, all races had to pull together to accomplish a task, I now see extreme polarization of the races. The kids growing up in such a separated system will formulate fear and mistrust of people who do not look like them. I hope they include racial harmony in their curriculum. Separatism in the US based on race is never a good idea.
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@Pepperman Absolutely, as what you experienced was the motivation behind leftists successfully seeking the end of the draft. Those activists did not want to be forced to associate with other than "our crowd," people-like-us who attended select universities and spoke in their vernacular.
The military is the great leveler. The IDF is an excellent example, fusing nationalism, politics, business, collaboration and long-term friendships, exactly what the American Left was afraid of. Think: Greatest Generation.
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@Pepperman. First, during the draft for the Vietnam war, the vast marjority of young men drafted were blacks and other minorities, and the poor. The rich like Donald Thrump were able to get deferments.
In this country and even in western, mostly countries controlled by whites, black and other minorities havfe little chance for success despite their efforts, except for a few lucky ones.
This effort to help these young men and women build their self-confidence and build their self-sesteem, is great and long overdue.
Paul A
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@Pebbles Plinth I think the reason that "activists" sought the end of the draft was because they wanted to not go to war and they wanted to avoid another Viet Nam.
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This is AMAZING....Growing up in Harlem I took this for granted to be surrounded by Blackness and to see this now being codified in public education in NYC is a great thing.
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Kids don't acquire lasting self-worth or life skills by shouting "I love my hair, I love my skin" & watching videos of pop stars.
If you want kids to develop healthy self-esteem that will serve them throughout their lives, teach a curriculum that will give them a solid grounding in reading, writing, math, science, social studies, the creative arts, grammar, phys ed, computer science, civics, geography, logic, critical thinking & history - lots of history, including black/Afrocentric, women's, American & world history. Encourage creativity & teach them how to express themselves in art, music, dance & so on. Help them develop healthy habits & productive routines. Provide experiences where they can solve problems, achieve mastery & experience a sense of accomplishment.
Genuine self-confidence comes from competence, not superficial slogans. Telling kids to love their hair, skin & selves is all well & good, but teaching them life skills will serve them better over the long term.
Also, are those adorable little girls in the photo training to be beauticians? I know barber, beauty shops & hair generally play an important positive role in black culture, but that seems to be setting the bar a tad low - & having only girls style hair (with pink brushes & combs, too) is glaringly sexist. "When Beyoncé sang, 'You just might be a black Bill Gates'" I think she had something more ambitious in mind. Girls of all races would be better served by more coding, less cosmetology.
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@curiousme You're not wrong, but also I don't know if you're responding to what's being described in the article. I don't see anything that states what they aren't being taught, only that they are getting an afrocentric education. Yes, morning affirmations don't magically give a child confidence... but in a society where dark-skinned people are getting bombarded with "Black is evil, straight hair is better, light-skinned is better," it is so valuable for kids to hear that message.
And for the picture of the girls, they're just playing. I don't think they are trying to train the next generation of cosmetologists starting from age 4. Why can't they play with black hair? How do you know they aren't getting any exposure to STEM?
When people try something new, it is so easy to pick their choices apart and to say they should be doing this or that, that what they are doing isn't enough. This is especially easy when people try to address huge issues like systemic racism.
My takeaway from this article is to celebrate that these kids get to learn in an environment that celebrates their culture and where they are exposed to positive role models who look like them. That's a wonderful accomplishment.
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@curiousme
These are children, playing the same game I did in the 1970’s with my blond, caucasion version of a Barbie head. Don’t read more into than that. And - just for the record - if any person chooses a career as a beautician because they enjoy it and are talented, why not?? It’s not inherently any less worthy work than other ways of making a living. Not my cup of tea to be sure - but I am sure grateful for the talented woman who cuts my hair, and who has been in the business for many decades.
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@curiousme Meh. You clearly don't have black hair. Those skills can save a woman and her family thousands of dollars on styling to look "professional." Doing hair on the side is also a very lucrative side-hustle in the black community. A "simple style" of box braids can take several hours and cost a couple of hundred dollars.
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I think being proud of ones identity is the right way to go
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@Dale Stiffler Let's see if you can get a good job and admission to college based on being proud of your identity.
Pride in identity is fine, but means little if you can't read and write English and do math. Let's hope these newly-segregated Afrocentric schools also teach skills that are valued in higher education and in the job market.
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@Dale Stiffler
There is a diference between being proud and considering identity to be the one ,all important and overriding aspect of life.
Churches and Nationalist political parties do this well. Shools, especially public ones have a far more prosaic and often confining set of aims and goals. One's hair or skin color were not ever supposed to occupy a central place in anyone's education-except maybe the Nazi Party.
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@Dale Stiffler
As long as they aren't white, correct?
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This is definitely interesting; but my own experiences and the best available evidence still suggest that integrated schools benefit everyone. I certainly empathize with these parents' desire to make sure that their kids learned about African and African American history. I grew up in a predominantly black but still quite mixed elementary middle school (It was probably 60/40 black/white though with relatively little other diversity) the teachers were also quite mixed in race. We learned so much more about both labor history and black history than my husband who grew up in one of the "best" school systems in the country (In Ct.) As an adult I see now that not only was my environment different but the content of the social science and english classes was often different from my peers that went to "better" schools. Many of them had to wait until college to cover some of the topics that I did. Though the math education at my school was frequently poor (except for a couple fantastic teachers in the elementary school). So there's that.
While it was sometimes uncomfortable going to school where I didn't really "fit in" (I was the only one that had private violin lessons), I never was "unsafe" as I think many parents would biased-ly worry. I also think that learning as a child to deal with the slight discomfort of sometimes feeling "different" from the people around you was a deeply valuable lesson-- one that many adults I know never learned.
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This idea is almost as bad as ugly school segregation in the 1900s by law in the south.
You don't make schools better today by doing something similar like yrs ago, ie legal or de facto segregation, a small group of black children in "an elite school".
Growing up as a white, in an all white elementary school, I only saw blacks and other minorities in HS, and then college and quickly saw they can be as gifted as any other group of students.
Elementary schools are largely segregated not because of discrimination but by preference of where the racial groups live. It is better that the parents make education a priority for all black students and demand from officials that they get quality schools and teachers instead of setting up a new segregated system of a small elite black group and a larger poorly educated one.
Learn from history or be condemned to repeat its' worst mistakes.
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@Paul By preference of where the racial groups live?
Are you really that ill-informed? People don't live in the most neglected areas of the South Bronx or Bed-Stuy because they "prefer" the fine public services, lovely retail stores and well-funded parks, schools and libraries. They might not have an opportunity to "prefer" a neighborhood like the Upper Westside where a studio apartment is $3,500/month.
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@Paul. Unfortunately, this is a perfect example of white supremacy. In addition pale skinned people are the minority of the people living on this planet
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@Paul
Racial groups, especially African Americans, didn’t “prefer” to live anywhere. They took what they were given in low rent redlined districts bc white neighborhoods wouldn’t have them. Decades of mortgage discrimination by the federal government and a GI bill that catered mainly to whites after the war didn’t help. It is and always will be a question of wealth, which blacks have been systematically denied access to in this country.
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What would people think if there were white-centric schools that encouraged kids to make white power salutes every morning?
I agree that we need to encourage people to be proud of who they are and we need to help improve educational opportunities for low income children, but creating entire schools that claim to be afro-centric seems to be a step too far.
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@Ben
Not the best comparison. I’d compare this to a Christian, orthodox Jewish, or French cultural school.
That said, having the students say, “I love my black skin,” aloud seems a bit strange, especially if there are other ethnicities who are enrolled in the school to take advantage of the intense Swahili or African history programs.
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@Ben It's called "school". Just like there's no white entertainment television. It's called ABC, NBC, CBS...
Roughly 4 out of 10 students are a minority, only 10 percent of teachers are, and some 40 percent of all public schools have no minority teachers. Also, the percentage of black teachers is the lowest since 1971 (6 percent), and only 5 percent of teachers are Hispanics, Asians, or members of other ethnic groups.
Don't want afrocentric schools? That's great. Let's do a better job integrating out current schools and there will be no need for it.
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@Ben: This is most frequent false equivalence in these conversations.
White people are the dominant group and have never been denigrated to the degree that black people have in this country.
How many of you had to go to under-funded schools with inferior facilities, drink from separate water fountains, not be able to the go to the same library in your town because of Jim Crow laws, and had you family's wealth stolen or burned to the ground like in the Tulsa race riot of 1921, and countless other inhumanities, all because of the color of your skin??
How many white little girls are looking at black and white dolls, and saying the white dolls are stupid/ugly, while the black dolls are smart/pretty???
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Thank you for tis artice. I am from Brooklyn. My nephew attended Little Sun People School. He received an excellent education, was surrounded by intelligent, supportive and loving people of color who told him that he was loved, wanted, and had a positive and future. He later went on to attend a private boarding school, graduated and then attended an excellent private college. He knows his history, he has loads of friends, positove relationships with people of all colors and races. His sense of self is positive. He is an intelligent African American man with a wonderful, productive position, he functions well in "the white world" because he knows his culture. I wish I had had such a firm and positive education experience. I wish I was as confident as he is. I , a child of the 60's , still struggle with who I am and what it means to be an African/American in this country.
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@Kenya
You answered the question I was wondering about. If graduation rates are on par with other NYC private schools and the majority of the students go on to college or are otherwise gainfully employed after they graduate, then I don’t see a problem here.
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@Kenya
Everyone in our time seems to struggle with who they are. Usually finding out is a painful, life-long quest. Was it different thousands of years ago when self-identity was a given that was rooted in clan and tribe? Do those identity markers still hold us in thrall? These schools seem to remove some of the confusion of such a quest. And I get the message that self-identity is the main prize here and that such achievements as better job, income success, power position are subsidiary.
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@Kenya Are you African-American or are you African-European-American?
Is embracing being African the same as embracing being Italian-American?
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(disclaimer: I am an Orthodox Jew)
This is pretty much the approach taken by the modern Orthodox Jewish community in America.
We want some level of integration with the wider American society, but we also want to inculcate into our children our own unique culture above all else. So we built our own schools.
Since the post-WWII period, this has been a huge success for us, the only difference being that our schools are private and self-funded.
I wish you every success.
This is the right way to go.
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Having experienced run ins with members of the Orthodox Faith who I felt were intolerant of others and to women I think this commenter tells me why these schools may not be s good idea, despite their pluses.
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@G I am a secular Jew and am totally turned of by the segregation of some Orthodox Jewish communities in the US -- and wonder what you mean by "our unique culture"? The part where women are second class citizens?
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@G Not sure how you define success, but many if not most of the young men in orthodox Jewish schools do not receive a well rounded education. They do no science, math and English at these religious schools. This is a pretty well known fact.
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This sort of self segregation may yield positive results on the micro level but I doubt that is the direction that anybody regardless of race would see as moving forward in the big picture. Also I wonder how much of the success is the same thing we see in charters in general, the children getting in to these schools have parents who are involved enough to make affirmative decisions to select these schools.
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I believe that any segregation in schools is fundamentally wrong. Having said that, I appreciate the fact that expecting African-American kids to emulate Nelson Mandela on daily basis is ridiculous. Kids need to feel comfortable and safe in school environment, not be subjected to vestiges of (Western)Euro-dominated ideation and insidious racism. Personally I had a very non-nuanced view of the subject until I heard comments directed at children of color at predominantly White schools, sport clubs, etc. Whatever extra money these school have, these don't make up for prejudice, dismissive attitude, and other attributes of non-violent, but pervasive racism. For context - I'm white, color-wise, and Other on so many levels.
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@Gordon SMC
"(Western)Euro-dominated ideation" is an absolutely empty phrase that reveals you to be an unserious person. The fact is, that the basis for our government, social institutions, legal institutions, language, etc. are inherited from Western Europe. It absolutely makes sense that these would dominate the educational system. There is not unlimited time in the school day.
My family is exclusively of Slavic origin (we had our Christmas yesterday) and we're not complaining about the exclusion of Eastern European perspective, nor are Asian or middle-Eastern families complaining. In terms of actual population and economic power, we should be learning about Chinese and Indian culture and history. Africa would be a distant 4th or 5th.
It's not the obligation of the school systems to equally represent every culture and history equally. Presumably, that's what your family life is for.
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@Joe Schmoe
I assume that you mean "US" when you gush about "your" government - albeit Kamchatka, listed as your whereabouts here is a part of Russian Federation. So with this caveat in mind, let me point out that Western-Euro "ideation" that US indeed inherited from its original colonial power, is a narrative of rise of "civilization" in Europe, that leaped from Greco-Roman antiquity to the Age of Explorers, Age of Empires, etc. Basically this ideation employs as a premiss the notion of superiority of the White men and Christian religion (hence the Discovery Doctrine), which introduces a clear bias in selective presentation of historic, political, and cultural
events and their interpretation. In other words this ideation is not so much Euro-centric in its subject (although this bias is also evident), but imperialist in its foundations. What doesn't strike me as serious is your notion that in school children should learn history from the textbooks, approved by the Texas Board of Education, and at home read up on Timothy Snyder.
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@Gordon SMC
"Sorry, I was wrong" would have been the appropriate response.
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When has a race-first sensibility, with its race reductionist approach, ever served citizens and the Republic well?
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Buried in the article are two comments that state that these schools are failing academically, so the kids might feel good about themselves and their ethnicity but not get a competitive education. Somehow the tradeoff doesn't make sense.
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This is a great idea! There are a lot of experimental schools in the U.S. There is no proof that religious schools or homeschooling offers the same rigor as good public or private schools, yet they are accepted, and their students often thrive. I can imagine similar outcomes here.
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The comments, in which these s hools are compared to rural, Catholic, Jewish and other cultural school systems, have been enlightening to me. I associated private school with "can't make it in public school" or "don't want my kids slumming". Thanks for sharing, everyone.
This will not end well. The apparent focus on building up a child’s self esteem with reminders of the beauty of their skin color rather than a focus on educating them in a manner that produces authentic and deserved self esteem is a great mistake that will leave the children unprepared for the real world. And the reference to Malcolm X (old news from a past century) and the principles of Kwanzaa is a red flag to anyone who thinks the school should look to the future and who is aware of the fraud that Kwanzaa is (read about its origin if you don’t believe that).
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@ehillesum --- Your concern about focus on self-esteem instead of education may be mislaid.
"The schools are run and staffed mostly by people of color, and tend to have high graduation rates and standardized test scores at or above the city average."
Is focusing on self-esteem AND education a bad thing?
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This article is balance and needed because it highlights practical solutions to the school segregation problem. I was not aware that the chancellor was supportive of these efforts, and he has earned my respect for that. The funding issues is extremely important and must be addressed.
Brown vs The Board of Education and the legal fights that preceded it were not about integration. Brown was originally about getting equal tax dollars for black school facilities, teacher funding and educational materials. That legal fight was about black children inside black schools receiving the benefit of tax dollars that their parents were paying to the government.
Because of America's racial and political climate, The Supreme Court refused to address the core issue of equal funding for schools attended by he children of black tax payers. Instead the court attempted to address the issue of funding inequality by sending black children to schools with adequate funding resources (Schools attended by the children of white tax payers). That is the genesis of integration.
Sixty-five years later, this funding issue remains the same. The children of black tax payers need Afrocentric schools with access to equivalent tax dollars and funding to schools attended by children of white tax payers.
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@M. West Thank you for your thoughtful comment. You touch on a crucial point, which is that New York City and other large school districts continue to have wealthy schools and poor schools. Part of the push for integration in NYC has been focused on how to break up what some advocates call privilege hoarding -- the consolidation of resources (funding, power, privilege) in just a few schools while most schools do not have access to the same resources, connections, and influence. That is the fundamental imbalance that both integration advocates and skeptics are trying to correct here.
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@Eliza Shapiro It is frustrating to read your conclusions without the data behind them. NYC school funding, for example, unlike the suburbs, does not depend on local property taxes but is centrally funded which means that whether in poor or wealthy neighborhoods, all schools have the same funding formula. It may not be perfect, but it is not as disparate as you state. Also, students with large poor populations benefit from additional Title I funds that schools with wealthier families do not receive. Further, NYC has a degree of school choice that few school districts can match. This choice allows families to opt for schools that meet their interests and helps spread the influence.
I am also concerned about how often the Times refers to the concerns of white families, but does not mention Asia families at all. A discussion of integration issues should include all of the constituencies.
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This article and the idea of setting up schools like this is very interesting to me. Any schooling that can help a child learn by being in a supportive environment is wonderful as long as it is not teaching hate at the same time. There is no evidence of that here--so let's applaud parents that have taken this step and continue to fight for appropriate education for their children. Something in the article that interested me but was not elaborated on was the statement that instead of focusing on discipline, the school had expanded mental health services. What does that look like and (how) does it work? Can we use that model in other places to assist in the learning process? I wish more had been said. Lastly, in these comments, I do not see anyone speaking the realities of living situations--talking about people's preferences in where they live--it's not a preference if people do not want to rent to you because of your race, something that still happens in 2019. And it's not a preference if the only place you can afford to live (also at least in part because of the sequelae of racism) is where schools are unacceptably bad.
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@Leslie T. Thanks so much for your comment. Though different schools I visited had different approaches to discipline, some stricter and more traditional than others, all were focused on getting students the same kind of counseling services and access to mental health professionals that students have easy access to in private schools. In other words, leveling the playing field between low-income students in Bedford-Stuyvesant and wealthy students on the Upper East Side requires giving both sets of students the same resources.
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Making any kids, not just black kids, feel good about themselves is certainly a worthy goal. However, this is no substitute for teaching kids to learn the basic skills that will enable them to succeed in school, get good jobs and improve the quality of their lives (i.e., rise above poverty).
Soon enough colleges and then employers will want to know if these kids can read and write English and do math. Learning Swahili and martial arts and watching clips of Beyonce are not part of any mainstream US curriculum I am aware of, and certainly not likely to appeal to most employers. Even in Africa there are few instances where Swahili is the language of instruction, or where Swahili is even taught; English, French and Arabic are more common as languages of instruction and/or languages to learn.)
White educators would be vilified if they advocated segregating black kids in low-performing schools and giving them an Afrocentric curriculum that reduced their future chances for good jobs and higher education.
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@Mon Ray you clearly did not read the article. The afro-centric schools have better outcomes than the normal public schools in the area.
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@Mon Ray
I guess you missed this sentence in the article:
"The schools are run and staffed mostly by people of color, and tend to have high graduation rates and standardized test scores at or above the city average."
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@Jasmine The problem is that NYC public schools perform below national standards, so doing better than NYC public schools is a low bar to meet. If Afrocentric schools performed better than national averages I might be impressed, though I am opposed to segregated schools even if voluntary.
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The first priority in building school curriculum and culture should be the needs of the students who attend it. That’s it.
We adults confuse the issue when we demand that they fulfill our needs- such as allowing us to say we send our kids to diverse schools that accept all types of students. In theory, the desire is honorable and the presentation looks great; in practice, great diversity lessens good teaching for one reason. Different types of students have different needs. Any one teacher can do only so much - as can any one school. What learning style, what culture will be most emphasized? The one promoted by the most vocal parents: usually middle class whites.
As one who attended public schools in working class communities, I realized how lucky I was to be educated within the norms of my family’s world. I competed with peers, not kids who went home to violin lessons and educated parents. If I had been in school with them, I would have faced much greater competition, without understanding that they had advantages I lacked. By the time I entered Pepperdine University on a full scholarship, I was better prepared to be in their mix, although challenges remained.
That’s why I support these parents and educators efforts.
First we need to meet the needs of each student without projecting unreasonable fears into the situation. In our world today it’s about impossible to live and work in completely segregated societies. Let’s give everyone skills they need to succeed.
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This is a beautiful thing. I am happy any time a race of people try and build themselves up and shake off hatred directed against them. At some point, white people are going to desire to have such schools and that will be a truly beautiful thing. I know young white children who have been told to hate themselves just as much as any black child. My primary love is for my own people of course but it is a wonderful thing to see young black people being brought up with values of self determination, self love, and independence.
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The Times repeats this information, "the school system is now one of the most segregated in the nation" in nearly every article about the NY Public schools. But where is this information coming from? How has this been determined? Compared to who else?
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@jg Thank you for the comment. Our reporters have written in the past about why New York City's schools are segregated and compared them to those in other cities. You can find some of that coverage here:
https://nyti.ms/2LWhdrH
https://nyti.ms/2KuDQT3
Thanks again for commenting.
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@Aidan Gardiner Obviously these schools only make those statistics worse. A pretty good example of why statistics without context aren't very meaningful.
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@Aidan Gardiner
Interesting findings, but after all is said and done, the relationship between integration and education is akin to the relationship between fruit flies and flag poles.
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A model for this kind of school is the Catholic parochial school system that flourished in big US cities during most of the 20th century. Catholic children were 2nd class citizens in the public schools, which were, effectively, Protestant schools. (Jewish families also had a creative response to this inequity.)
The goal of the Catholic schools, aside from religious indoctrination, was to transmit to young people a sense of worth and worthiness, a belief that they had a share in the American dream. It worked splendidly as Catholics entered mainstream American society. The election of JFK was seen as a major marker of success.
African Americans, looking to the parochial school model, will find unique features that helped ensure success: the common faith, a patriarchal system that employed nuns for a fraction of the cost of certified teachers, religious exemptions that made purchases of real estate feasible, to name a few advantages.
The model cannot be employed lock, stock, and barrel, but this example of standing up to a majority determined to discriminate is instructive.
One thing is certain: the commitment to this kind of solution must be unyielding and its goal must be insertion into the American mainstream, not a "separate but equal" version of society.
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This could be the worst policy and most detrimental to race relations and minorities. The more one gets to know another person the less skin color or ethnic back ground become the defining characteristic of that said person.
Tiger Woods signed a $40 million endorsement contract with AMEX. Was it because Amex wanted to tap the country club black market? No they signed him because he was the best golfer in the world, a legitimate super star and the best of all time(at least over those 8 years). Tiger WASNT a BLACK golfer. He was the greatest golfer who happened to be black. Do you think country club kids running around saying, "I want to be Tiger", meant being black? No it meant being the best regardless of color.
Framing education along color lines only reinforces divide. I want to live around people who are like me. Who is that? People who work hard, earn a education for a middle class living, respect the law and others. Those people are "like me" irrespective of color.
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@Patrick Ansell
that would be "regardless", not "irrespective"
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@Patrick Ansell
"This could be the worst policy and most detrimental to race relations and minorities."
The thing is, I generally agree with your point about this being a bad policy, but this statement of yours is very hyperbolic and shows an ignorance of what's been going on in the world around you. What about unjustified voter ID laws which serve to disenfranchise black voters or districts that are gerrymandered to limit their power?
If what you're saying is that we should strive to not see race, I agree, which is why I think a school based on race and teaching racial pride is a bad thing. On the other hand, we do live in a racist society where if you are white, it may be harder to understand the experiences of those who are not.
@Cherish animals
not taking (something) into account; regardless of.
"child benefit is paid irrespective of income levels"
synonyms: regardless of, without regard to/for, disregarding, ignoring, notwithstanding, whatever, no matter what, without reference to, without consideration of, setting aside, discounting; informalirregardless of
"each member has one vote, irrespective of the number of shares held
1
Reminds me of Jesse Jackson getting lots of publicity for getting people to say, "I am somebody!' His slogans and exhortations certainly led to a lot of progress for all and I would expect equal success as a result of the kinds of harangues that are being promulgated here. Or does anyone else even remember the Jesse Jackson shtick?
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@SR,We are somebody.I love it because we were forced to learn about other history but not our pwn!!!!!!!
Will white children be afford the same privilege of attending a Eurocentric school in which teachers teach them to recite sentences like, "I love my white skin. I love my straight hair."? Or is that a "black privilege" that is only afford children with a bit more melanin in their skin. Something tells me that being proud of the tremendous accomplishments of Europeans and white Americans within every field of study within academia would be called racist. But when black people do it... Well, it's a different story. Double standards should go die. It 2019, I'm proud that you are proud of being black and I'm proud to be white. Not just proud... very proud. I love your blackness and I also love my whiteness. Why can't my kid say the same?
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@Joshua - White children (and adults) get told directly and indirectly, through the beauty standards that are pervasive in our society and reinforced by advertising, movies, and the vast majority of everything you see on TV, that their skin and hair are beautiful, what is to be aspired to, and what is considered "normal". White kids get that kind of affirmation everywhere and all the time. They don't need a school to tell them this. You are comparing apples to oranges.
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@Joshua It saddens me that comments like yours get so many recommendations. All mainstream schools in the US are Eurocentric and American-centric by default, so your first notion is a nonstarter. Being taught the history of the great accomplishments of the people of these civilizations, with the histories of other civilizations relegated to the side, is also the default in all mainstream US schools, so that makes your third notion a nonstarter.
And being surrounded from birth to death with pervasive popular notions of ideal beauty being some unattainable state because of the fact that you happened to be born with the wrong skin color? Thankfully, the beauty industry seems to be trying to diversify rather than finding a single type and cloning her, like in my young days (Cheryl Tiegs/Christie Brinkley etc.)
The point is here, your kid *can* say the same, but he or she doesn't need to. And if you feel the need to publically ask this question, maybe you should take a step back yourself, and just think about it all for a while.
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@Joshua
it is not racist. Everyday in maany ways African Americans in this country are told and shown that we are not valued and or wanted. We need to know that we are!! We are special, and different and important . We need to be encouraged, and Africancentric shcools are necessary. Wish I had had the oppportunity to attned one or at least had been home schooled. Attended Eurocentric schools were not usual positive experiences for me, teachers did not care, it was not abot teaching, it was about keeping "them" in their place.
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For several decades the charter school myth has been sold to minority parents as the best option for students however only in minority zip codes. You don't see charters in the upper east side. Their teachers generally do not have education certification and that has been ok because charters are managed by white corporations and many are on the Stock exchange. White management ensure that negative discipline is enforced and even when it is videotaped TV, NYT writes about it charters and their management find a way to justify teacher behavior.
Since we live in a society where a wrestler has his hair cut on the will of a racist white referee children need to fill pride in themselves understand their history and receive an outstanding education Education when withheld leaves children with very few options, Currently the lack of integration has serious issues so why should parents who want the best for their children put up with a broken system, All black schools in the past produced many of our brightest leaders in science, math etc. Alternatives should be offered and charters are not the answer.
Education from Joel Klein to the current leader is all about promoting the leadership vs education for children. We didn't get to this miserable place overnight, decades of falsehoods with the inclusion of the mayors has brought us to this point.
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teaching racism, forced segregation and alternate facts, what a great idea.
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Seems like steps backwards, not forwards.
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I think this is a great idea, as long as we can also have schools designed specifically for white children.
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@Robert That is just about every school in America. As mentioned in the article, children of all races are welcome to apply and some actually attend. It is only that the achivements of African Americans are emphasised in the curriculum, just like the achievements of European Americans are emphasised at just about every other school. Where are you going with this comment?
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@Robert - We have de facto white children's schools in and outside NYC. White people self-segregate all the time. What do you think caused the flight to the suburbs?
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You do have schools designed specifically for white children, the majority of the schools in America.
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Amazing - flowing through this article is the seductively happy view that what better way is there to create black and/or hispanic group pride and affinity than through separate schooling?
My question is, conversely, how better to perpetrate - and perpetuate - racism in America than this?
Our progressive elites now favour viewing - and manipulating - the American polity based on "victimized" interest groups, rather than all members of the polity being treated simply as Americans and therefore indistinguishable in law or equity. Therefore, separate race-based schools to instill even stronger and unified group identification and pride make great sense, and are here being promoted as quite appropriate.
There's only one slight problem here - the law of the land, which is supposedly color-blind.
If blacks or hispanics merit all-black schools, how about whites? But - oops - how do we feel about all-white schools? Not so happy? Yet all-black or hispanic schools are ok? Is that because of their attendees' victim status, so flouting the law is justified?
Shame on us.
The Supreme Court justices whose 1896 Plessy versus Ferguson decision perpetrating "separate but equal" on the black community, must be smiling in their graves.
The issue here is a schoolteaching system that doesn't work. Separate but supposedly equal - or better - race-based schools is nothing more than perpetrating racism on an institutional basis. We need to do better, far better, than this.
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@Jack I am pretty sure whites can go to these schools. They just do not apply.
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@L. To be fair, why would they, if the curriculum involves statements of affirmation regarding one's dark skin color and is entirely focused on blackness? I say this as someone who sends my white child to an almost all-black school, where they do teach a lot of black American history and pride, but don't require the students to affirm their blackness to be part of the school (if they did, how could we put our son in that environment, where he was explicitly being told that he doesn't fit in?). It's true that American and European schools are mostly going to focus on American and European history, which for a long time was a majority non-PoC history, but those schools do also teach about other people, about black Americans and Europeans, about women. A more diverse curriculum is a good thing, and I can understand the frustrations with the system that lead to this kind of school, but it does trouble me as an ideology because the second it becomes applied to people of European descent (who are very diverse among themselves as well) it becomes a problem - like a WWII, or Jim Crow problem.
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@Jack It’s not the schools that fail. It’s the kids and their parents.
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For those of you who don't know, "Sun People" was the term the notoriously bigoted CUNY professor Leonard Jeffries used to describe black people; white were "Ice People". It's more than a little disturbing that a school designed to exclude and malign some uses this sort of language.
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The ancient pedagogical imperative is: Know Thyself.
Schools ought to take this into consideration for EVERY child, including and especially for African-American children who live in a culture organized to denigrate African peoples for the sake of justifying white supremacy.
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"Alternative to integration?" There is already a word for that. Calling it an alternative is sort of like saying "alternative to accepting Jews....."
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If there were a cosmetic/medical procedure to effectively
produce a Caucasian appearance -- how many might use it?
2
I'm not sure this is any weirder than Hebrew School, where we learned, well, let's not get into it now
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Odd and wrong
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Hebrew school was after school and on Saturday.
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Hebrew School is typically a one-morning or afternoon per week thing. Not five full days a week.
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I have no moral objection to this, but it does seem we've got a lot of cognitive dissonance going on. Everyone pays lip service to diversity and integration, but few people actually want it.
Even those in the article who are open to integrated schools think they need "more educators of color" and so on, which sounds very much like a Afrocentric school within a school. I thought it was rather sly how they try to paint the "white" parents "sobbing" and "screaming" (the linked article suggests plenty of those parents were Asian) but, in any case, they are upset because they thought coveted spots would be given to underachievers in the name of PC. There's also a debate as to who diversity benefits - if you go back and look at SC precedent, they seem to be thinking of white kids. Wow.
What's head-scratching is that these folks are very open about wanting to celebrate their race, preach Black Power, teach the tenets of Kwanzaa (an inherently Black Nationalist holiday if you read their core principles), and focus on black heritage and history. That's fine, if they think that will solve the community's ills.
But mainstream schools are no longer "white" schools. While much of the history involves white peoples' deeds, it is NEVER tied in a positive way to their race.
In fact, white children will rarely be taught anything but guilt about their white skin. We've come full circle in some ways. A white school with this curriculum would be shut down. As these folks know, roots matter.
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its all about parents, if they take an active role in their child’s education, make sure they are well fed and get proper sleep, their child will in most cases be successful in school. Too many parents view school as daycare and don’t value education.
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I've taught about racial issues for 30 years at an elite, largely white liberal-arts college, and I'm at the point where I think it's simply humiliating for African American students to attend white-majority schools. I don't want my own mixed-race children to attend the university where I teach. The intentions of white-majority institutions might be totally benevolent, but no one has managed to erode, let alone eradicate, the bias and prejudice which linger in the DNA of the system. My African American students confront racist insinuations, put-downs, and slurs almost daily. Most of them graduate in a state of trauma, determined never to send their children to places like this. "Not all boats are rising" indeed.
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I recognize your courage. I too have witnessed systemic discrimination in University settings, not only in the USA but in the UK, France and Germany as well. The problems you seek to solve require changes at the k-5 levels. Look into the US communities that successfully remove racial bias from their education systems (I'd suggest minority college placement as a benchmark). Next see the framework used by it's k-5 teaching staff. Last, look to the local Board of Education for it's own diversity. Scool Systems exist that do remove racial bias from the the classroom and the community. At University, we must stop affirmative action. That's a tough one, but a culprit in perpetuating bias.
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The issue is that these schools get to select their students and turn away the trouble makers. Of course they are going to have higher test scores and graduation rates.
We have to figure out education for all. Not just the kids who can score high on a standardized test.
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Community and parent involvement in their children’s schools is what makes a school successful these parents are totally involved in the education of their children to be sure everyone is on board and to be accountable for everyone’s success
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It’s so much easier to blame the schools and an alleged “segregated school system” than to accept responsibility for the fact that the performance of a body of young students is nearly entirely based on life at home. This is made evident by the outstanding performance of Asian students. They place educational values at the top priority for their children. I wish folks would raise their kids in a stable home with both an active mother and father before they placed blame on the school system (or any combination of two active role models). You could build them an elementary school subsidiary of Harvard and staff it with the best educators in the world, but until the parents treat it as more than just free day care, you won’t see progress.
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@Austin
You seem to be equating the emphasis on discipline and test-taking prowess with emphasis on education. The difference becomes quite evident when you move on from standardized test performance onto the open-end/exploratory tasks. Adjusted populationally, the metrics for African-American students at the advanced levels, particularly PhD schools are no worse, and in some disciplines better than that of students of Asian descent.
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@Austin If schools don't matter, then show me a middle class family whose number one priority when buying a home isn't quality of the schools. Or show me a rich school district that gladly accepts poor kids from a different neighborhood.
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@Austin I don't even know where to start with your comment, but I'll try. This article is about parents who do treat schools as more than free day care, first of all; second of all, there was nothing in the article to suggest that any of the parents involved were not providing their children stable homes. Perhaps you are blowing a certain dogwhistle in order to blame the overall lack of progress of Brooklyn's public schools on black families, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt here. I'll end by promising you that segregated public schools do still exist, and mentioning that for how wonderful their existence is overall, public schools simply are not for everyone.
24
While these schools might be a positive force for kids of today, the need for them saddens me. Perhaps one day in the future we’ll have a shared American experience. Not a segregated one.
20
The Egyptians were not responsible for the achievements of ancient Greece. The Egyptians were responsible for the achievements of Ancient Egypt. Back a few decades, someone wrote an Afro-Centric book that was trying to make up for the Black history missing in our schools and our society by claiming that many of the seminal achievements of humankind were by Black Africans. He made that his frame of reference and put out a shaky thesis that Ancient Egypt was the origin of Greek ideas and achievements. Fast forward, and here we are decades later reading about two children, one Black one White, arguing over that thesis. Fascinating. My feeling is, by all means have Afro-Centric schools, but get the story right. The story has been wrong for so long. Leaning one way too far doesn't really make up for leaning the other way too far. I wish though we didn't live in a society where black children have to be told to be proud of their skin color.
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@jack
I'm sorry but the Egyptians were very much linked to the achievements of ancient Greece, and Egypt far exceeded the Greeks in many ways, We know more about the Greeks because they are closer to us in time and because of their connection to Rome. The achievements of ancient people are the achievements of people of color, or as those ancients used to say. People.
4
Interestingly, modern Egyptians positively LOATHE the biblical idea of ancient Jews building the pyramids.
(The historical data is on their side: at best the ancient memory of Hyksos building temples in lower Egypt before their expulsion, and mingling with pre-Israelite Canaanites, became conflated into the pyramids over the millennia but even that is debatable)
Anyway, this is important because every society/culture wants to claim their achievements as solely due to their cultural superiority.
I understand the desire for "historical black glory", certainly every group needs a golden age for their self-worth/ego, but its a shame they focus on Egypt rather than Nubia.
The Egyptians in no way considered themselves African. Even the few Kushite pharaohs of the 25th dynasty (~800 BC) did everything possible to appear "Egyptian".
If I were looking for ancient African glory, I'd look to Nubia for real historical facts rather than the psudo (false) history of a black Nefertiti or the "lost" Israeli tribes
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@ESR
If you ask any Egyptian, they identify as Arab, not Black. Egypt may be part of Africa, but culturally, ethnically and linguistically, they are more middle-eastern than African, BTW the Greeks, the Turkish and the Egyptians are not that different from each other although they are in three different continents.
13
As a white parent, I say more power to parents and educators trying to build young minds and souls. And, I'm sure the Beyonce story is not illustrative about the regular curriculum. But it reminds me of s moment when we considered a more diverse school for our kindergartener. At the community event, commercial hip hop was blaring. The high performing, but too-white, school our son now attends doesn't promote commercial music of any type.
In my work I'm blessed to meet and work with so many African American entrepreneurs and civic leaders. Regular people striving to do amazing things, not fronts for massive white-owned marketing machines. I hope that the realty is that these schools celebrate them, not the "stars" and "players" that may be heroes to kids but are not reasonable role models.
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America appears to be moving towards a Balkanization of the schooling system.
Wouldn't it be wiser to move towards a model in which schools are inclusive and representative of the diversity of the United States?
Seems a bit odd to self segregate, versus having students learn about other members of the community from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.
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@Jordan
These schools can be compared to other ethnic or religious-based ones, i.e. Chinese schools, Korean schools, Jewish schools, Islamic schools,etc. , which may be full-time or attended after regular school hours.
Also: why are there are still women's colleges, by the way? I was told be a former student of Goucher College that their rationale was to bolster young women's confidence and agency in a college classroom.
While I do see the need for a bit more rigorous content than what is presented in the article, these schools seem to be a step in the right direction.
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@Jordan The American school system has generally been balkanized for many years. Despite the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, the divisions have generally remained in the US.
2
Education in a manner that teaches blacks or any other race to accept itself, to understand and to care for itself can be a genuinely good thing. Our lives are are own and we must all take on that responsibility. But we must also stress that this is one earth and any one human is very much the same as any other and we, all of us, live here together.
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Parents want to do the best they can for their kids. If these schools produce better outcomes than traditionally integrated ones, I am all for them. Young potential is important and should not be wasted.
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What’s good for the goose is good for the gander but I don’t think they’ll like that.
31
Children will rise to your expectations of them. It is clear from this article, that the parents of these children are involved and have high hopes for them. As one politician put it a few years ago, society must not practice the soft bigotry of low expectations. Or as another put it more recently, just win baby!
15
Afro-centric, dual language, and other schools that include culture, history, and language in the cultured project of schooling are largely positive, and more closely fulfill the mission of public schooling to educate the whole child/citizen than do policies that seek to organize schooling primarily or solely through standardized tests that include no history or civics, as though the most important thing about human learning was its performance absent your humanity. It is sad that neighborhoods are segregated by necessity and safety, but parents want neighborhood schools that reflect their values and needs. They do not want their children to be bussed for the most part. These schools actively welcome and are shaped by parents and the community. I do think that that we also need bridge or magnet schools by middle school and high school, because children also need to be exposed to other people and viewpoints. Our country is sorely lacking in empathy and tolerance.The only area, charter or public, of concern to me is that the bright line between private religious schools and secular schools be maintained.
6
Thanks to those who are offering alternatives for kids. Our school curricula are not neutral--they are white-centric with a sprinkling of token black, Hispanic, Native, and female heroes, all of whom are safely dead. Kids have a hard time growing up to become engaged citizens after years of being in schools that tell them that no one who matters or mattered in history looks like them. Or, maybe there were a few, but they were unreachable saints (and inevitably murdered for their temerity).
I'm a white teacher, and I see it every day of my life.
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@JO: This assumes that relevant similarity--what it means to "look like" someone else--is determined by the color of one's skin as opposed to, say, the content of one's character. Teachers like you reinforce the stereotypes rather than question them and emphasize our common humanity.
19
Do your Christian students not idealize Einstein? Are your white students not in awe of Barack Obama?
I find the idea that someone needs to look like me in order to be inspiring offensive on every level. I have never heard a child, during those early years full of wondrous dreams, say that they couldn't be like their hero because of skin color.
To assume that inspiration is dependent on how we look is to have the absolute lowest expectations of our nation and children.
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@JO
In your opinion should African American students adore Clarence Thomas? He came from very humble background to rise to the US Supreme Court, that rise is impressive and he looks like them too!
6
No school can replace a stable 2 parent home, A student that needs to be shown Beyoncé clips to build up his or hers self- confidence, would be much better served by having a present Father tell him or her that they can be anything if they work hard enough, Plus wouldn’t it be better for these students to learn about Bill Gates then learn about Beyoncé?
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Did the article imply that this educational model was meant as a substitute for intact families? What makes you assume that these students have absent fathers? Assumptions like these, and airing them publicly speak to why parents would want to educate their children outside of an educational system that assumes their children are operating at a deficit before any evidence.
108
Not everyone has that choice. Did you?
3
@Meg,
No, the article didn’t imply the lack of a stable father figure in the black community but to be surprised or shocked by this comment is completely naive and damaging to the black community.
17