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NO, NO, NO, TO BLACK SCHOOLS |
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Written by Alex J. Walling
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Tuesday, 02 May 2006 |
 Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, Willie O’Ree and Jamie Harris would not be pleased over this idea of having an ‘all black school’. And one could add Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, James Meredith (he’s the first black student who attended the University of Mississippi in 1962) and the many others who fought while some gave their lives, for integration.
We all know of Jackie Robinson, the first black man to play in major league baseball in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Doby was the first American League black athlete and he came into the majors a year later with the American League Cleveland Indians.
I spent my childhood watching Willie O’Ree fly through the Quebec Professional hockey league with the Quebec Aces and he became the first black man to play in the NHL when he was called up by the Boston Bruins for two games in 1958 and 43 more in 1960-61.
They say that Fritz Pollard was the first black pro football player. He played pro and coached in the NFL.
Jamie Harris is thought of as the first black QB to start in the NFL when he played with the L.A. Rams in 1974.
I’m sure all of the above and more would be stunned if not shocked by the comments of St. Pat’s educator and Vice Principal Wade Smith.
Smith and controversial school board member Doug (I’m staying in my seat and not moving) Sparks seem to feel that today’s black kid is having a problem.
It seems that stats indicate black students have lower graduation rates and academic averages while drop out and suspension rates are higher.
And is this because these kids are with ‘mixed’ schools?
I got a hard time with the logic on this one. Smith, who was a good student, went to St. F.X. where he excelled in the classroom and basketball court, seems to believe that he isn’t for segregation but rather wants to ‘enhance the educational experience of the African-Nova Scotian student’.
He cities other cultures by saying French Immersion and Roman Catholic schools as examples of groups having their own schools.
As they would say in French, ‘Au contraire, mon frere’.
First of all, French immersion schools are usually attended by English kids who want to expose themselves more to Canada’s second language. And as for Roman Catholic schools, of which I attended in primary to secondary levels, other than catechism in grades one and two and religious in one class in high school, we learned everything from reading, writing and arithmetic, math, sciences, languages and the other stuff to get us ready for the ‘real world’.
So, his example is off the mark.
Mr. Smith feels or doesn’t want blacks to forget their culture as a whole.
As for Doug Sparks, I’m sorry but this guy lost total creditably with me and so many others when he went off on his ‘I won’t give up my seat’ episode which made our school board almost inept a few months ago along with his comparison to the famed historic civic rights person, Rosa Parks.
If Sparks compares himself to Parks then I can compare myself to Howard Cosell.
Sparks should have been banished to the corner and kept there until the end of the school year. And yes, that includes wearing a dunce cap because he acted like one.
Every time he speaks there seems to be a racial remark to it. This time he quotes a report dating back to 1994.
Gee, Mr. Sparks why don’t you go back 100 years to make your point.
On Tuesday Rick Hotline Howe tried to get Sparks to come on the Hotline and defend or explain his position but Sparks didn’t want to.
Just one second great sir, you make a statement and are afraid to defend it. Not exactly a mature move. Anyone can fire a comment but to make a comment and hide or not be willing to answer questions on it….well, what can one say.
Sparks is mad at the media these days over his pedestrian and juvenile antics a few months ago at the Halifax School Board.
If you can’t take the heat then get out of the kitchen.
Let’s talk about this frivolously ridiculous notion for a black school.
First of all, why?
To preserve black culture they say.
Give me a break.
This is not Quebec or Newfoundland where a black man is a rare sight. This is the most populated black area, per capita in this country.
If we don’t have (and we do) black culture here then there is none in the rest of this land.
This is a city where we have both stellar black leaders and awful criminals.
Yes, there are very good and very bad, black men.
There are many areas from Gottigen Street, to that famed and often troubled Uniacke Square to Preston, Cherrybrook and so many more areas where there are many black people whose culture thrive and have for decades if not centuries.
Believe me, I have been associated with high school events for the past four to five years as a result of several business ventures, the latest one being a high school newspaper and I can tell you there seems to be no problems with assimilation of cultures in schools such as St. pat’s, QEH, JLI, Dartmouth High and Cole Harbour.
As for blacks not doing well in school I say it is a matter of economics, family situations but not race.
I heard the Rick Howe hotline show on Monday May 1, and Tuesday May 2nd, discussing that topic and many are taking the easy way out and that is blaming the teachers, the education system, and the government. They will levy blame on everyone but themselves.
Several callers pointed out saying that kids are finding some subjects ‘boring’ while others say the black kids will turn out for a black teacher.
What a crock.
Sure, teachers could always get better but then so could all of us in our jobs but these teachers are educators not TV entertainers paid a million or more a week, Hollywood style to entertain us.
Kids are in school to be educated not entertained. Once in a while you will get a teacher who can do both and that person is a gem. Mine was Father Brewer in grade 9 and 10 and he taught history. I fell in love with the topic and can still recite the Plantagenet line of Kings and have never forgotten that the Magna Carta was in 1215.
Heck, today’s video game, I-want-everything-now generation has a lot of growing up to do. Most of them can’t do basic math and have a hard time speaking English when they leave high school.
Forget ‘culture class’ how about extra classes for reading, writing, speaking (correct English) and spelling.
The entire aim is to get kids ‘ready for the real world’ and white or black we will have to learn to get along and to assimilate into society.
If black kids feel alienated with the school system let’s find out why. That line comes from the 1994 report; I think it’s time for another one.
And I bet I can find as many white kids who feel alienated as black ones. It is not a one dimension situation.
We don’t live in easy times. Many families are dysfunctional. Many kids don’t have a mom and dad, many are the products of broken homes and abused childhoods and our hearts go out to them. But making all white or all black or all purple or whatever colour schools is not the answer.
Could you imagine the furour if a white educator suggested ‘All white schools’? Howe’s Hotline would be going for months.
The number one factor for a good and well educated person is the parents or those who raise the child.
Nearly every book I read says kids formative years are well before he enters grade one.
Before that first day in kindergarten a parent has years, and years to talk, preach, and build culture.
If anything, blacks may need some good role models but I see them around. Wade Smith is a great role model, from the inner city to a respected educator.
Cecil Wright, the colourful co host of Harv’s Sportsland but a respected community worker tells me he understands what Wade Smith is trying to do but also has a thought of his own.
“Black, red, whatever colour when you come out of school you deal with the world. There is no such thing as a black world,” he told me.
If we ever get to a black school what’s next, a black Wal-Mart, a black Tim’s?
Kids, regardless of colour have many opportunities for cultural enhancement from Black Culture month to many others.
Many schools such as Eastern Shore have programs dedicated to and for kids who wish to be informed on black and other (Mic Mac) cultures.
Courses on black culture in high school, sure. A total school simply for blacks, then we are going back to the southern days of slavery and what is next.
And what happens to the black kids that like the school they are at?
Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, Willie and the boys would not be pleased.
Kill that idea.
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