Separate schools won't solve aboriginal problem

(Vancouver Courier, Feb. 2, 2011)

Separate but equal. A poisonous euphemism abolished by the American civil rights movement during segregation's twilight years. Post-integration, black kids in America continue to struggle scholastically as black communities deal with high crime rates, drug use and single-parent homes.

In Vancouver, aboriginal kids face similar challenges with equally dreary results. Last week at Point Grey and Templeton secondary schools, Jo-Ann Archibald, associate dean for indigenous education at UBC, helped moderate two public forums on aboriginal education. On the agenda: a proposed mini school for aboriginal students.

Archibald, who grew up on a reserve in the Fraser Valley, believes in success through separation. "Some form of a school that has an aboriginal focus or perspective is needed, and would have great benefit."

According to Ministry of Education records, 58,659 students attend Vancouver public schools including 2,114 aboriginal students. Last June, only 31 per cent of Grade 12 aboriginal students graduated from high school compared to 72 per cent of their non-aboriginal classmates. Due to a high dropout rate, important courses such as Mathematics 12 and Biology 12 are virtually devoid of aboriginal students.

Despite these statistics, Archibald rejects any notion that aboriginal students are failing. On the contrary. According to Archibald, the school district has failed aboriginals. "Often the school curriculum doesn't reflect much aboriginal culture, history, knowledge. So students may not feel a sense of belonging." Archibald also blames the district's institutional racism, occasionally voiced by teachers in the classroom. "Sometimes teachers may make a remark, and sometimes it's students. We have a number of factors that create difficulty for aboriginal children."

The Vancouver School Board embraces Archibald's worldview. She's helped evaluate district aboriginal programs and consults with school board officials. In June 2009, the board, dominated by Vision Vancouver and chair Patti Bacchus, ratified the so-called Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreement--an overtly political document, drafted over several years by a handful of First Nations bands, each jostling for influence in the public school system.

Incidentally, compared to other ethnic groups and demographics, the aboriginal student population is richly served. The school district employs aboriginal curriculum consultants and an aboriginal district administrator. Fully staffed aboriginal "resource rooms" operate in many schools alongside First Nations leadership training, culture and language programs. Two courses—B.C. First Nations Studies 12 and English 12 First Peoples—are dedicated to the aboriginal experience. Yet aboriginal student performance remains stalled. Asian students, on the other hand, succeed without a heavy focus on Asian history or a wide network of Asian-centric programs. The anecdotal evidence is obvious, and according to some, overwhelming. (See the recent controversy involving Maclean's magazine and the "Too Asian" environment at Canadian universities.)

Frank Ho, founder of Math + Chess, a tutoring company headquartered in Kerrisdale, helps teach hundreds of kids math principles, preparing them for high school and post-secondary studies.

Before opening his centre, Ho, an immigrant from Taiwan, worked as a statistical consultant at UBC and taught summer school at St. George's prep school for boys. Ho believes curriculum, while important, rates low among determining factors for student success. "It's about the way parents believe their kids should improve in education. It's the parents, basically. It's not the school."

According to Ho, the poor performance of some Asian students proves the importance of parental influence. "It's not race dependent. Asian people—particularly Chinese, Korean, Japanese—their emphasis is very much on education. This comes from a traditional way of raising the kids. Some Chinese do good, some Chinese do bad. The dividing line is the parents."

Contrast that view with Archibald's indictment of the public school system, with its endemic racism and dysfunction. That narrative, intentionally or not, absolves aboriginal parents and students of personal responsibility.

Racism exists everywhere. In schools, offices, on the street. It's an ugly part of human nature and should be discouraged wherever it festers. But aboriginal students in Vancouver don't fail because of racism. To construct any solution around this false premise is counterproductive. Preaching victimization will not raise aboriginal grades.

Would more aboriginal content in the classroom help aboriginal kids learn? Maybe. But there's only so much room in the curriculum, only so much classroom time. However, if the VSB wants to introduce more "non-western" culture to students, it should look first at the Asian community. Lots of good lessons there.

 

 

 

Comments

[saz]

Wow this post is so ignorant. How can you say "there's only so much room in the curriculum" for Aboriginal Studies. These people have a right to learn about themselves on their own land. It's true that Aboriginal people often place small value on Education, because this 'education' is coming to them from the same institutions that tried to destroy their culture and continues to teach them that they only way to succeed is assimilation.

And PS your post does no favour to Asian students who struggle in school or can't live up expectations about being good at math. Stop perpetuating stereotypes.

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