In Edward Morris’ article ”"'Tuck that shirt in!' Race, class, gender and discipline in an urban school," Morris explores the differences in disciplinary action between race and gender at a middle school in Texas (Morris, 2005). Essentially, the findings suggest that black and Latino students were disciplined in an unfair manner when compared to white students who misbehaved in the same way. Morris suggests that these schools are reproducing and possibly even exaggerating inequalities of race, class and gender (2005, p. 26). Morris’ findings were particular intriguing to me as I read the article because I have never seen students be treated like that in schools I have gone to, which is not to say it didn’t happen, I have just never witnessed it. As I read, I didn’t understand how a school could so blatantly display acts of racism and get away with it. Maybe because the black and Latino students had a more hateful and less-conforming attitude when told to tuck their shirt in than the white students did or perhaps because the staff were slightly racist but couldn’t admit it to themselves? Whatever reason for their mistreatment towards non-white students, it was wrong.
After reading Morris’ article and then having the
class debate/discussion about Afrocentric schools and both the positive and
negative aspects to that option for schooling, I started to think about how
Morris’ article could be evidence as to why Afrocentric schools could be a
positive thing for society to explore and research more. The treatment of black
and Latino students as expressed by Morris leaves no wonder as to why black students
are failing or dropping out of school at such a high rate, with statistics
provided by George Dei in his article "Schooling as Community" (Dei, 2007, p. 347) If a student does not feel comfortable in their environment, how
can they be expected to learn? If someone feels they are being treated unfairly
and disrespectfully in one environment, it only seems natural that they
wouldn’t be comfortable and able to focus and would want to change to a place
where they are more comfortable. It is not just about the environment however,
it’s also about the curriculum the school is required to teach. In our class
discussion, we talked about how the curriculum we experienced growing up was
greatly Euro-centric, with history classes teaching predominantly European
history and English classes studying literature by white writers. I can say
from personal experience that at my high school, there was only one class
offered about African-Canadian heritage and it was offered as an elective.
Meanwhile, the regular global history class was mandatory in order to graduate.
It seems as if the school board placed a higher importance on learning a
Euro-centric curriculum even though there were many black and other minority
students that went to my school. It makes me wonder why all students weren’t
required to take the African-Canadian history class when the school placed
importance on other aspects of black history in the school. As ideal as it
would be to introduce a whole new curriculum that caters to every race at a
school, it seems very unlikely that it could work, simply due to time
constraints and having to possibly hire new faculty, which could mean more
financial needs. George Dei proposes the idea of schooling as community (2007, p. 358), which to me means that everyone should work together collectively to
help find the best ways to educate children/youth and if the system fails, it
is the fault of the community doing the schooling, not the students themselves.I think Afrocentric schools are a good idea, if they continue to be as successful as they seem to be doing. In Jan Wong’s article ‘Why educational apartheid is not the answer to curbing dropout rates for specific racial and ethnic groups’Wong says that research into segregated learning is scarce (Wong, 2011), but I think it is wrong for her to refer to Afrocentric schools as segregated. When I think of a segregated school, I think of an extremely racist staff, faculty and students and forcing students to go to a certain school because of their skin color. Afrocentric schools are completely optional and are open to people of all races, with the main difference being that the faculty is black and the curriculum is centered on African-Canadian contributions to history so that black students can see that they too have the potential to go on and do amazing things with their life if they work hard and put their mind to it. Education for children should be the number one goal for a community on a smaller scale, and the country as a whole, so why are so many people so quick to label Afrocentric schools as segregated learning and that it is a bad idea? Why would we want to keep such high dropout rates for minority students, when they deserve as much of a chance at an education as anyone else? If the situation were reversed and it was an area in the country where it was an predominantly black region and there were only a few white students who were dropping out of school, I am willing to bet that the government would be quick to step in and offer whatever resources they could to see a change.
Morris presents some valid points to show why black and minority students would feel uncomfortable and disrespected in schools, which could ultimately lead to their low academic success rate. The success seen by an Afrocentric school in Ohio (TVO, 2009) and a newly developed Afrocentric school in Toronto should serve as evidence that these schools show great promise and can help young people utilize their skills to the fullest extent to get the most from their education. I don’t know why there is so much debate over having Afrocentric schools, when other types of schools geared towards gay students, or religious students are perfectly acceptable. I just know that educating children should be the number one goal of any community and there should be less debate over Afrocentric schools if they are proving to be successful and the children are getting the most out of their education.
Dei, G. J. (2007). Schooling As Community. Journal of Black Studies, 38, 346-366.
Morris, E. W. (2005).
"Tuck that shirt in!" Race, class, gender and discipline in an
urban school. Sociological Perspectives , pp. 25-48.
TVO. (2009, March 5).
Toronto's Africentric School: Is it Needed? Is it Wanted? Retrieved
February 8, 2012, from Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9yhWiNykPI
No comments:
Post a Comment