Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

"Africentric" School

Rate this topic


avampirist

Recommended Posts

Where I live, in Toronto, the Toronto District School Board has just recently voted in approval of opening an "africentric" public highschool, which will be "black-focused" and will try to discourage blacks from dropping out. The dropout rate for blacks in this city is 40%, so the idea is that a school of this type might help black kids' self image to learn about contributions made by blacks in history and society. Many of those in favor of this idea have blamed the public school system for the dropout rate, accusing the system for being discriminatory to blacks.

There's been obvious backlash from the community, because many view this as a huge step back from the progress made by the anti-segregation movement, in what is the most culturally diverse city in the world. However, the school will be open to people of all races, but will simply teach in a black oriented way, whatever that entails.

At first, I didn't like the idea. I would think that labeling blacks as needing a special school would hurt the self image of the community more than anything. But maybe it's not so bad of an idea. I've always hated the fact that there are not many options for schooling for young children. Perhaps there's no harm in providing more options and letting people judge for themselves.

What do you think?

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTV...hub=TorontoHome

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's no African way to teach Math, Science, Civics, Geography. If English is a student's second language, there might be a need to tailor teaching a little bit, at least to begin with; but, otherwise, there is no African way to teach Grammar and good writing skills. The Chinese and the Indians and the Japanese and the Koreans do not do well in schools because they follow a way that glorifies their ethnicity. An Indian IIT student does not do well because he thinks India has a rich history, and that he comes from great stock.

Educating kids is not rocket science. Teachers should adopt a rational curriculum that is about learning to deal with the world by conceptual means: language, math, etc. Teachers should have high expectations from their students. Parents should lay down the supportive groundwork, in terms of attitude, discipline, etc. That's all -- parents and teachers with a decent high-school education can turn out Harvard scholars. it is being done all over the world.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Many of those in favor of this idea have blamed the public school system for the dropout rate, accusing the system for being discriminatory to blacks.

The last thing that these kids need is another school that institutionalizes the idea that they are under achieving not because they are not taking the appropriate actions to become a successful student but because the system itself is racist and is holding blacks down. Given the backwards overarching philosophy of these schools, they are bound to be a failure. More importantly, the school itself will probably produce a lot of individuals who will be intellectually committed to the destructive philosophy of racial egalitarianism. I suspect that this school will be very harmful towards the children who will attend.

I also think that the label of "Africentric" is also silly, as I suspect that the large majority of the students attending the school will be blacks whose parents and grand-parents have lived in North America.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What such schools do is teach us to accentuate as essential non-essential differences between us. This is highly immoral and highly destructive, because what is important about a person is not their race. This is a reality. Your race will not build a bridge, solve a math problem, nor make you good. The only way to do those things is to apply your rational faculty and make decisions to guide your life.

Anyway, such schools will create division (clearly), tension and then hatred. That's what will happen. Multiculturalism promotes racism. In the short run things may look sweet when better people are in control, but as the underlying premises take hold the more vitriolic types will come out of the wood work, and those who accept the premise of multiculturalism will be powerless against them.

Really, multiculturalism has to be fought hard, not just because it's anti-Western, though that's the primary reason, but also because it will create a hell-like world of fighting, irrational factions.

Edited by Thales
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Those schools are built on a very unfortunate racist idea, that blacks are incapable of learning the truth, that they are unteachable unless what they are taught is distorted to have a particular "Afro" appearance to it, and that certain arcana and pseudo-arcana are of more significance to blacks because of the child's ancestory.

In an Afro-centric math, you would have to learn such things as "we have no numbers beyond 1 million", "we have no fractions other than '1/2'", "we have no word for 'circumference'", and the method of dividing involves actually doling things out into piles 1-by-1 into the requisite number of piles. You may learn how to reduce a weaving pattern to an equation.

Afrocentric science focuses on the importance of spirits and ancestors, and conveys some amount of traditional knowledge of poison plants and beneficial herbs, plus many spells for detecting witches. Afrocentric civics amounts to teaching respect for the king and hatred for the evil Kikuyu cockroaches, or Luo cockroaches, depending on which village you live in. Afrocentric history involves making up a bunch of complete gibberish about everything in Africa somehow descends from the Pharoahs contrary to evil western objective scholarship. Actual African history is much more interesting than that.

There are various reasons to dislike Afrocentrism, but for me the most important is that it is utterly ignorant and incompetent as a representation of Africa. On occasion, somebody manages to get something right, usually only if they hire an actual African to teach Swahili or real facts about Africa, but that's rather uncommon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What such schools do is teach us to accentuate as essential non-essential differences between us. This is highly immoral and highly destructive, because what is important about a person is not their race. ... Anyway, such schools will create division (clearly), tension and then hatred. That's what will happen. Multiculturalism promotes racism.

Multiculturalism does more than just spread hate and promote racism through highlighting superficial differences. More exactly, multiculturalism is a type of racism. The differences, to multicultralism, are not non-essential but fundamental: the theory accepts the equation of culture with race (a premise that predates multiculturalism), and states on that basis that the value of a person and what are the rightful values to that person are derivable from the race of that person. That is the essence of racism, and multiculturalism enshrines it.

On the basis of culture=race, an attack on culture is then taken as an attack on race. The multiculturalists fall back on subjectivism and relativism to say that such attacks are wrong on the grounds that no culture is better than any other. However, it is patently obvious to any honest observer raised in the west that some cultures are most definitely superior to others. With the premise of culture=race firmly internalised even by those who nominally reject multiculturalism, the obvious superiority of some cultures over others is then translated into beliefs of superiority of some races over others. The mild versions of this belief are the pseudo-intellectual trash of "race realism" while the nastier versions are violent race supremacism.

The multiculturalists are powerless against this consequence of their own activities (assuming that various multiculturalists are even honestly appalled by this result) because they totally disarmed themselves when they preached relativism over the universality of reason and tried to ignore the blatantly obvious. The only way out is to ditch the twin core premises of race=culture and non-objectivity, and instead (as you noted) promote reason and life as a common method and standard that all men should be held up to irrespective of their genetic inheritance - and on that basis, schools like these should indeed be condemned.

In the short run things may look sweet when better people are in control, but as the underlying premises take hold the more vitriolic types will come out of the wood work, and those who accept the premise of multiculturalism will be powerless against them.

The premises wont "take hold" - they are already in place just by the nature of such schools. The news article said that the intent of the school is to try to stop kids from dropping out by raising their self-esteem through racist collectivism: "don't drop out, you can achieve what these other black people achieved!" Even merely by trying to show that particular black people genuinely achieved X accomplishments, the underlying theme that is being indoctrinated is the idea that the kids should develop an affinity for racial connection rather than the proper method of showing that what so-and-so did was a human achievement and trying to develop an affinity for reason. Add to this that the predominant skin colour of achievers just happens to be lighter (particularly in recent centuries), toss in legitimate historical grievances plus the worrying reference to addressing present-day socioeconomic circumstances, and you do indeed have a recipe for denigration and excuse-making based on race. It will be hell from day one, with or without violence or vitriol from teachers, with or without the unscientific nonsense that David predicts, and even with or without malice on the part of the founders. Additional content from outside the school will worsen things further still.

Really, multiculturalism has to be fought hard, not just because it's anti-Western, though that's the primary reason,

The primary reason is that it is dead wrong about human nature, values, and methods of learning. Being anti-Western, and hence a threat to everyone's well-being (particularly, in this case, the children who will be its victims), is a consequence of that.

but also because it will create a hell-like world of fighting, irrational factions.

If anything, an extended ostensibly calm period before actual violence starts will be worse because at least by the time there's visible anger the problems will be obvious and fewer new children will then be subjected to it. Beforehand, the damage to the children will be more hidden and more lasting, where the longer a lid is kept on fighting the worse it will be because the damage will be being driven wider and deeper. Further, the more calm, united and sincere that the founders are, the harder it will be to mount a challenge against them and what they stand for. The emergence of the vitriolic types will mark the coming of the end of the nightmare, not its initiation.

JJM

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Multiculturalism does more than just spread hate and promote racism through highlighting superficial differences. More exactly, multiculturalism is a type of racism. The differences, to multicultralism, are not non-essential but fundamental:

They treat it as essential, but in reality it's non-essential.

the theory accepts the equation of culture with race (a premise that predates multiculturalism), and states on that basis that the value of a person and what are the rightful values to that person are derivable from the race of that person. That is the essence of racism, and multiculturalism enshrines it.

Yes it does, however there is also the fact that there is a strong anti-Western component, which I think is the main driving force behind it. I think the main idea is that all cultures are equal, except the West, which is terrible.

On the basis of culture=race, an attack on culture is then taken as an attack on race. The multiculturalists fall back on subjectivism and relativism to say that such attacks are wrong on the grounds that no culture is better than any other. However, it is patently obvious to any honest observer raised in the west that some cultures are most definitely superior to others. With the premise of culture=race firmly internalised even by those who nominally reject multiculturalism, the obvious superiority of some cultures over others is then translated into beliefs of superiority of some races over others. The mild versions of this belief are the pseudo-intellectual trash of "race realism" while the nastier versions are violent race supremacism.

I think racial inferior-ism is as bad or worse. This is what Europeans are practicing now, as they cower before muslims and others. We’re not worthy, you can do to us what you like.

The multiculturalists are powerless against this consequence of their own activities (assuming that various multiculturalists are even honestly appalled by this result) because they totally disarmed themselves when they preached relativism over the universality of reason and tried to ignore the blatantly obvious. The only way out is to ditch the twin core premises of race=culture and non-objectivity, and instead (as you noted) promote reason and life as a common method and standard that all men should be held up to irrespective of their genetic inheritance - and on that basis, schools like these should indeed be condemned.

Right, just treat people as individuals.

The premises wont "take hold" - they are already in place just by the nature of such schools. The news article said that the intent of the school is to try to stop kids from dropping out by raising their self-esteem through racist collectivism: "don't drop out, you can achieve what these other black people achieved!"

What I meant by "take hold" is that often the concrete conclusions derivable from a premise are not understood by those who hold to the premise, because they can't see that far. Many so called multiculturalists today are Westerners with many good Western ideas in them, and it takes time and effort to kick the good ideas out and replace them with the bad. Those who hold to the ideas more consistently will be a much nastier sort of person, than those who haven't fully corrupted their minds. This is why it takes time for things to get worse. Things aren't yet nearly as bad as they can be following multiculturalism. The real end of it is the fractioning of society, warfare and abject poverty, with no end in sight. Technology would go back to the level of the Dark Ages or Stone Age, because men will not be valued for their minds, and reason will be rejected.

The primary reason is that it is dead wrong about human nature, values, and methods of learning. Being anti-Western, and hence a threat to everyone's well-being (particularly, in this case, the children who will be its victims), is a consequence of that.

I have to think about that one, because that gets back to "What is the primary cause?"

If anything, an extended ostensibly calm period before actual violence starts will be worse because at least by the time there's visible anger the problems will be obvious and fewer new children will then be subjected to it. Beforehand, the damage to the children will be more hidden and more lasting, where the longer a lid is kept on fighting the worse it will be because the damage will be being driven wider and deeper. Further, the more calm, united and sincere that the founders are, the harder it will be to mount a challenge against them and what they stand for. The emergence of the vitriolic types will mark the coming of the end of the nightmare, not its initiation.

Yes, I believe this is true.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Where I live, in Toronto, the Toronto District School Board has just recently voted in approval of opening an "africentric" public highschool, which will be "black-focused" and will try to discourage blacks from dropping out. The dropout rate for blacks in this city is 40%, so the idea is that a school of this type might help black kids' self image to learn about contributions made by blacks in history and society. Many of those in favor of this idea have blamed the public school system for the dropout rate, accusing the system for being discriminatory to blacks.

There's been obvious backlash from the community, because many view this as a huge step back from the progress made by the anti-segregation movement, in what is the most culturally diverse city in the world. However, the school will be open to people of all races, but will simply teach in a black oriented way, whatever that entails.

At first, I didn't like the idea. I would think that labeling blacks as needing a special school would hurt the self image of the community more than anything. But maybe it's not so bad of an idea. I've always hated the fact that there are not many options for schooling for young children. Perhaps there's no harm in providing more options and letting people judge for themselves.

What do you think?

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTV...hub=TorontoHome

I would like to pose another question. What would happen if someone wanted to start a cacausion centric school. One open to all races but would celebrate the values of being white. I would call that racism. We have an opportunity to learn from each other, why do we want to bring segregation back. Why is there a 40% drop out rate? Have we looked at the root cause of the drop outs? Many studies link a students success with parenting. Was there an analysis done on the root cause? For mankind's sake let's not take too steps back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What would happen if someone wanted to start a cacausion centric school. One open to all races but would celebrate the values of being white.

A value is something to fight to keep. How in the world would one fight to stay a certain skin color? :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes it does, however there is also the fact that there is a strong anti-Western component, which I think is the main driving force behind it. I think the main idea is that all cultures are equal, except the West, which is terrible.

...

I have to think about that one, because that gets back to "What is the primary cause?"

I had a bit more of a think about that one myself.

Multiculturalism is traceable back to Kant's rubbish. I don't think he was an advocate of multiculturalism, that instead it was a later application of his work to the fact that different cultures have different ideas, leading to there being different Kant-style innate ideas of which none are more valid than any other because they're all invalid anyway. I don't know who was responsible for that.

I was wrong to forget about the anti-Western motivations of Kant and that of his followers (ie hatred of what is good about western culture, for being the good), and so there is definitely anti-Western hate in the picture. However, that's not the same thing as saying it and malice derived from it are directly key-drivers of multiculturalism because there have been heaps of evil things done in the name of The West. Understandably there are visceral reactions against notions of its superiority, so in any person's case it depends on what his or her particular motivation is and what "The West" means to them.

I think racial inferior-ism is as bad or worse. This is what Europeans are practicing now, as they cower before muslims and others. We’re not worthy, you can do to us what you like.

Intrinsicist value judgements (race X is superior to race Y) worse than subjectivist value judgements (no culture is better or worse than any other)? While I have little respect for either group, and yes I'd have far more reason to fear for my life from the former than from the latter, I would tend to go the opposite direction because the basis for the former (among the honestly mistaken anyway) is the real observation of what's better than what. The thing to do then is to smash the culture=race premise and show that race has nothing to do with anything of any importance. In contrast, try reasoning with an honest subjectivist with a knowledge of history. Dr Peikoff argued that an M1 is better than a D1 precisely because an M1 is more easily argued with, and I totally agree. The M2's and D2's, however, are just scary buggers and I don't think any notion of one being better than the other has any meaning.

As to Europe and Islam, I don't see race as having anything to do with that, either. Neither western culture (such as remains in Europe) nor Islam are races. Are you honestly trying to say that a lot of Europeans think they are racially inferior to people from north Africa, the Middle-East and the Sub-continent?? I accept that there are freaks who actually believe this, but I find that one hard to swallow as a widespread motivation! I dare say that a lot of European's fears (particularly outside academia) and reticence about condemning other cultures stems from not wanting to lend credence to the race-supremacists who still exist among them - Europe is on the wagon (so to speak) and is terrified of falling off again, subscribing to the notion of universal skepticism as the path to peace in the meantime. Naturally there is evasion in terms of unwillingness to apply the same thoughts to others, but that's not a belief in their own inferiority. And yes there's anti-Americanism in there too, but they know that they are generally of the same racial stock and that their anti-Americanism is derived from them thinking their cultures are superior to that of America.

What I meant by "take hold" is that often the concrete conclusions derivable from a premise are not understood by those who hold to the premise, because they can't see that far.

Out in the wider world, sure, but the point was that everything bad was already in place in these schools from the get-go. The article said that there are more considerations to be put into play than merely trying to boost self-esteem and retention rates through racial affinities. These considerations included the kids' socioeconomic circumstances - add into this the pre-existing angry content from the students, parents, and others in the community who will want a say in how the school is to be run, and what do you think you'll get before the first week is out?

JJM

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 7 years later...

There's no African way to teach Math, Science, Civics, Geography. If English is a student's second language, there might be a need to tailor teaching a little bit, at least to begin with; but, otherwise, there is no African way to teach Grammar and good writing skills. The Chinese and the Indians and the Japanese and the Koreans do not do well in schools because they follow a way that glorifies their ethnicity. An Indian IIT student does not do well because he thinks India has a rich history, and that he comes from great stock.

Educating kids is not rocket science. Teachers should adopt a rational curriculum that is about learning to deal with the world by conceptual means: language, math, etc. Teachers should have high expectations from their students. Parents should lay down the supportive groundwork, in terms of attitude, discipline, etc. That's all -- parents and teachers with a decent high-school education can turn out Harvard scholars. it is being done all over the world.

 

 

The subjects you name can be taught from an afrocentric view.  In the math textbooks for instance when they show the image of the person who they will grant is an important contributor to math they'd be a black person instead of an old dead white man from the middle ages. Same for science.  ie. where they'd usually show newton as making some big discovery in physics in a physics text they can instead show african civilizations like the egyptians or songhai or malians who also had important contributions to physics.

 

Again, Eurocentric scholars claim shakespeare is white. Africentric scholars claim he is black. A eurocentric english class will use eurocentric and western european white authors. An africentric curriculum will use black authors that are more appealing to the african-carribean children.  There is certainly differences here.

 

If you think the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and Indian are not gloryfying their own peoples in their history books you have a gross misunderstanding of these cultures.  In particular the Japanese, Chinese and Koreans are among the few people probably more highly nationalistic than any other on the planet.

 

A eurocentrick system that is stacked against african and carribean children will never succeed no matter how many times you reshuffle the card deck.  You could put all black teachers but if the system is still eurocentrick, they' ll still fail.  The problem isn't even individual white racist teachers, students and principals per se, it is the entire system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last thing that these kids need is another school that institutionalizes the idea that they are under achieving not because they are not taking the appropriate actions to become a successful student but because the system itself is racist and is holding blacks down. Given the backwards overarching philosophy of these schools, they are bound to be a failure. More importantly, the school itself will probably produce a lot of individuals who will be intellectually committed to the destructive philosophy of racial egalitarianism. I suspect that this school will be very harmful towards the children who will attend.

I also think that the label of "Africentric" is also silly, as I suspect that the large majority of the students attending the school will be blacks whose parents and grand-parents have lived in North America.

 

No system perpetuates that myth more than the eurocentrick system which portrays blacks as bumbling baffoons who need a white man to fix all their problem.  It tells you blacks were slaves, then a white man freed you.  But then they hated you and were racist against you and took all your rights, then they sicked their racist police dogs on you, and spreayed you with some houses when you asked for the ability to sit on a bus.  Then the white man let you free.  Do you not see how this eurocentric narrative might cause blacks to believe they are simply passive victims of white man?  This is basically what they keep repeating.  They are telling black children their peoples are simply passive in the human experience and should sit around for a white to do it because they have no freedom.

 

Would black-centric be preferable to you?  Do you not see how it is problematic that you are trying to define the name that an ethnic group calls itself in light of the fact that it was white people who beat them in slavery and took their birth names?

 

 

What such schools do is teach us to accentuate as essential non-essential differences between us. This is highly immoral and highly destructive, because what is important about a person is not their race. This is a reality. Your race will not build a bridge, solve a math problem, nor make you good. The only way to do those things is to apply your rational faculty and make decisions to guide your life.

Anyway, such schools will create division (clearly), tension and then hatred. That's what will happen. Multiculturalism promotes racism. In the short run things may look sweet when better people are in control, but as the underlying premises take hold the more vitriolic types will come out of the wood work, and those who accept the premise of multiculturalism will be powerless against them.

Really, multiculturalism has to be fought hard, not just because it's anti-Western, though that's the primary reason, but also because it will create a hell-like world of fighting, irrational factions.

 

There are essential differences between african-carribeans and europeans.  Many european/white have been raised in this concept to be color blind.  Do you not understand that if someone is a person of color and you are blind to them, how it can be problematic. You are saying you cannot see them or their achievements of their peoples.  Thus you are writing them out the history books.  Of course this was not your intent, but this is the effect and why eurocentric schooling has produced abysmally low graduation rates for not just black but various other ethnic minorities in canada including french canadians, aboriginals, portuguese etc.

 

It is easy for a white person to say your race isn't important in a society of white privilege and the teacher is white and the  principal is white and the board is white and all the people in the textbook are white and the curriculum and rules are designed by and for whites.

 

I agree, multiculturalism promotes racism, so it is time we divide into our own little corners before we all turn more racist.  The africentric school is a step in the right direction.

 

 

 

I would like to pose another question. What would happen if someone wanted to start a cacausion centric school. One open to all races but would celebrate the values of being white. I would call that racism. We have an opportunity to learn from each other, why do we want to bring segregation back. Why is there a 40% drop out rate? Have we looked at the root cause of the drop outs? Many studies link a students success with parenting. Was there an analysis done on the root cause? For mankind's sake let's not take too steps back.

 

The 40% drop out rate stems from the eurocentric curriculum and the eurocentric school rules/system which for lack of a better word are anti-black.  There are also a small minority of white teachers, principals and pupils who are racist against blacks, some openly others covertly.  This doesn't help the situation.

 

Many studies have been conducted and all recommend opening the africentric school (about 8 since 1989).

 

Due to Canada's immigration system, many of the parents have college or university degrees, at least higher than the Canadian national average.  Africans have 19% ph.d+masterss in canada compared to just 15% of canadians.  Jamaicans have 21% college degrees compared to just 15% of Canadians all according to stats can so they are on average MORE educated than the white canadians and other canadians who their children are underperfoming.  This is why the reports conclude it is  systemic problem of systemic racism against the children. These two groups form nearly all blacks in the city of toronto.

 

This means even if you put a black teacher in the class, the system would still have the child fail!

 

The africentric system is a step forward, from an outdated colonial system designed by and for white western europeans students and to "keep blacks in their place" or from "becoming uppity".  It was actually designed for them to fail by showing only negative images of blacks where they seldom appear and mostly positive images of whites.

 

As for why not just an africentric course.  This would miss the point, you have an entire system designed for black students to fail. A single course cannot overcome an entire system, you need a NEW SYSTEM, to combat an old system that stinks.  

 

It would be like if your computer system was wrought with worms and viruses and purposely programmed to fail for the end user.  Even the top computer expert in the world, wouldn't go through 10 billion lines of code line by line trying to fix it all. At a certain point he'd say dude, just buy a new computer.

 

 

 

They have several caucasian centric schools in toronto, greek, russian, french, italian, roman catholic, protestant irish, english school board etc.  They all celeberate the value of being white and white cultures. Strangely, no one cares nor bats an eye.

 

Segregation = involuntary separation

 

Separation = voluntary separation

 

What are you going to do, pass a law that black students must all hang around x number of non-blacks and be a perpetual minority in every aspect of their life? Its pretty silly when you consider the other side of the coin, the only thing worse than segregation would be forced integration. Because you are still seperating people based on race, just in the opposite direction.

 

Ie. If there are 10 whites and 20 china men.  And the 10 whites sit together. And the forced integration officer comes by.  And says hey, too many whites together. 5 whites must go sit with 10 china men here, and another 5 whites must sit with 10 china men there.  Well you just divided whites up based on race!  To force integration, you still are segregating up whites on race, so its hypocritical really.

 

There is no opportunity to learn from each other when 40% are dropping  out and another 10% regularly don't show up to school.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is what the white schools teach too though. That is why all the images in the textbook are of western european white males. these curriculum were set in a time when only boys went to school.

 

I could accept your argument all school systems are racist or ethnocentric, that is not even far fetched.  but to pretend eurocentric education is some kind of objectively centered discipline and all others are lies, betrays the truth.

 

Only whites can see themselves through the mainstream lens.  Because non-whites quickly learn that anything that is not specified as non-white means white.  Unless you say the cop was a black cop, I and you will assume he is white.  Unless you say the server is asian, we will both usually assume she is white.  This is the way most people's minds function in the west.

 

The view that the pre-dominant achievers are white is a white world view. But again, most whites have been conditioned by their educational system to see this not as a white world view but simply as the only objective truth. But if you think kids in China and Japan are opening textbooks with images full of white people and not slant eyed yellow skin people, you are grossly enamored in white privilege and white culture to the point you cannot consider another view point.  And that goes to show how dangerous a eurocentrick education is, it makes one incapable of even CONSIDERING that others may view the world differently.

 

 

The premises wont "take hold" - they are already in place just by the nature of such schools. The news article said that the intent of the school is to try to stop kids from dropping out by raising their self-esteem through racist collectivism: "don't drop out, you can achieve what these other black people achieved!" Even merely by trying to show that particular black people genuinely achieved X accomplishments, the underlying theme that is being indoctrinated is the idea that the kids should develop an affinity for racial connection rather than the proper method of showing that what so-and-so did was a human achievement and trying to develop an affinity for reason. Add to this that the predominant skin colour of achievers just happens to be lighter (particularly in recent centuries), toss in legitimate historical grievances plus the worrying reference to addressing present-day socioeconomic circumstances, and you do indeed have a recipe for denigration and excuse-making based on race. It will be hell from day one, with or without violence or vitriol from teachers, with or without the unscientific nonsense that David predicts, and even with or without malice on the part of the founders. Additional content from outside the school will worsen things further still.
 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow.  Simply wow. I missed this the first time and color me horrified.  

 

I weep for the continued collectivization of society into such group think rot that pretends 1+1=2 is somehow dependent on anything more than the basic child-like facts of reality.  

I fear we will see superstitious warding against evil and fetishes to go along with our tribal formation of concepts.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's new to me, too.  Thomas Sowell pointed out somewhere that whenever individuals, minorities or entire nations (19th-century Japan is his example) have striven successfully to catch up with some role model, they have done whatever they could to emulate that role model: learn the language, read the books, wear the clothes and generally acquire the ethos.  Thus, he observed, we can expect programs like this one, promoting cultural separatism, to fail, as in fact they have.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hernan Dayoleary,

 Would you say that there are more than several Africentric public elementary schools in Africa? My unstudied guess is that there are. And yet, Africa relies on foreign medical teams, construction contractors, and other foreign advisers to lift them out of their blighted and impoverished state of affairs. (And by "foreign", I do not mean only European or American; many are from Asia, and post-colonial states.) Are you suggesting that their schools could furnish Sub-Saharan Africa with more doctors, engineers, and a stable justice system if they would only advance more Afro-centric studies into their public schools? Then please tell me how that sort of change would benefit the United States?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What makes this nonsense hilarious is that in the supposedly "euro-centric" and "white-centric" US education system, white students are not the ethnic group getting the highest grades in math and science: Asians are. 

 

The view that the pre-dominant achievers are white is a white world view. But again, most whites have been conditioned by their educational system to see this not as a white world view but simply as the only objective truth. But if you think kids in China and Japan are opening textbooks with images full of white people and not slant eyed yellow skin people, you are grossly enamored in white privilege and white culture to the point you cannot consider another view point. 

I don't know much about China, but I assure you, in Japan there is no effort to make science and math Japanese-centric or Asian-centric in any way.  You definitely won't find Newton, Franklin, Edison or Einstein replaced by lesser Asian scientists. You won't find Asians given equal status, either: European scientists' place at the very top of the pyramid is fully recognized, and Japanese contributions are put in context objectively.

 

And yet, Japanese students don't feel marginalized or discouraged by all the white faces in their science textbooks. They learn science and math just fine. More than fine, in fact, they're doing better than most. 

 

And the suggestion that there is an African scientist in history who deserves the same recognition as Newton or Einstein is just stupid. No nation that wishes to preserve even a semblance of rationality among its population would ever try to teach children something that moronic.

Edited by Nicky
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I note the surprise by some about this virulent form of ant-individualist irrationalism.

I suggest that many Oist are sleepwalking in this cultural battle. I mentioned to an up and coming Oist who is a PHD once at dinner something about social constructivism and its influence on education and they never heard of it before! I mention this because SC is thought of by many as the "philosophy of multiculturalist"... There is a concerted, focused effort to poison the minds of developing individuals with this garbage.

Edited by Plasmatic
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I note the surprise by some about this virulent form of ant-individualist irrationalism.

Irrationalism, sure. But I don't know of any evidence that this is a real threat at all, or that many people are this radical. People think all sorts of crazy things. To claim there is a "concerted, focused effort to poison" screams conspiracy theory. If there is evidence, I'm curious about it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Louie said:

People think all sorts of crazy things. To claim there is a "concerted, focused effort to poison" screams conspiracy theory

Louie, a "conspiracy" is something done in secret. Apparently you are confused about what a conspiracy consists of. Nowhere did I say anything about a hidden agenda..... Maybe the "screams" are coming from your evaluation of what was actually said.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The fact that the OP points out thee is a concerted an effort to bring about an 'africentric' approach does indicate a concerted an effort in some areas. It is more difficult to grasp that it is done with the intention to poison, than out of poorly opposed ignorance.

 

Edited - "concerted" was imported from another post.

Edited by dream_weaver
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Louie, a "conspiracy" is something done in secret. Apparently you are confused about what a conspiracy consists of. Nowhere did I say anything about a hidden agenda..... Maybe the "screams" are coming from your evaluation of what was actually said.

Settle down, I'm only saying it reminds me of something a conspiracy theorist would say, e.g. "The corporate elite are threatening and coercing us through a concerted effort, and they pretend it's voluntary trade. Everyone else needs to stop sleepwalking and wake up to see the obvious". I'm suggesting that the worry of a "concerted effort" isn't a valid one. Putting it in those terms tends to make anyone who disagrees into a sleepwalker, and makes Objectivists look plain kooky. I was just looking for evidence that there really is a concerted effort, instead of taking your word for it. On the face of it, I seriously doubt anyone would take beliefs like "Africentrism" seriously except a small fringe minority, and I suspect multiculturalism overall doesn't live much outside of sociology.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The fact that the OP points out thee is a concerted effort to bring about an 'africentric' approach does indicate a concerted effort in some areas. It is more difficult to grasp that it is done with the intention to poison, than out of poorly opposed ignorance.

Concerted effort usually would imply a wide-scale effort, not that one school was approved in a school district. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Concerted effort usually would imply a wide-scale effort, not that one school was approved in a school district. 

I shouldn't have used that there.

 

While it is disturbing to see it fostered in an education system, it is something that rises in some areas within the community. Some years ago, the notion of teaching 'eubonics' in the Detroit area was floated about in the media.

 

I doubt ARI is the only organization that wants to change the culture. It might be instructive to discover how wide-scale other efforts might be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Teachers should have high expectations from their students.

This really goes a long way. It's uncanny how most students in all sorts of subjects will do better under teachers who simply expect better work and who consistently teach with that attitude. This was on display for me recently at a school reunion of sorts. In high school, we had a choir director who decided his students were going to sing at a certain level, usually performing pieces which were above even the skill levels of most colleges. What do you know, year after year, for 25 years, his choirs performed at that level, with members aged 15-18. I know it was above college work because I've been in and seen choirs from many different colleges, across many different types of college music programs. Then, at the reunion, everyone had the best, positive memories of all their prior effort and achievement.

 

Now that I think about it, Teacher With Expectations could be the name of every one of those motivational-type underdog movies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...