This response is to the Beverly-Jean Daniel piece, "Reimagining the Urban: A Canadian Perspective." and for anyone not in my class, you can find the original article here:
I found the entire piece quite hard to respond to for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, I have my own experiences growing up in rural, suburban and urban schools, as well as a host of friends who went through similar situations. Second, the article touches on A LOT of BIG issues regarding classification of schools/society, judging and labeling students, socio-economic issues surrounding race, gender, education, status, etc. And third, part of me wanted to rebel against some of the things she proposed and illustrated, and I'm having a hard time reconciling what is a knee jerk contrarian reaction, and what is a genuine disagreement on my part. Because of how much is going on in this article, my response is going to get pretty messy. Starting with what I agree with, I do believe that Daniel's presents credible data, examples and reasons for the problems with classifications of "urban" areas over suburban ones, as well as the hangups and misconceptions that follow those inner city schools and communities. She does a very good job of identifying key factors that lead to the systematic cycle of these areas, how they are deprived of mechanisms which would allow them, the students, and the community at large to exit their problems, or also, how those who are able to leave, simply move to suburban areas, taking away resources, business opportunities and investments. It's no secret that the overall state of government funding, initiatives and level of interest is not meeting the requirements of impoverished communities, and they are being left behind on all levels; education, social support, economic planning, development, etc. These are all factors and influences that are obvious to anyone living within those systems. Growing up, I moved from a purely rural school in Caledon, filled with either local farm children, or middle class kids bused in, to a suburban/urban middle school, with a strong mix of diverse backgrounds (I was in French immersion, so many students were brought in from surrounding areas), to a very ethnically rich and immigrant heavy high school, right in the urban center of Bramalea. I had friends from white, middle class families, who's biggest problems were where to buy pot or how to spend their allowance, to friends whose parents didn't speak English, were picked on because of their ethnic food and clothes, and got dragged into gang violence. None of us needed someone to explain the intricacies or boundaries of suburban or urban life, we saw those boundaries everyday and were forced to live with them. Of course, at face value, our school and students were a multicultural community, and no one supported racism. But racism was front and center in every aspect of daily life at school, from the hallways were only 'brown' kids could hang out, or parts of the playground and parking lot where you'd get jumped for wearing the wrong clothes, and to the gangs that spread through the surrounding housing complexes, racism was not only a constant reality, but also crucial to understand if you wanted to make it through the day. I don't agree with the portrayal Daniels hints at when she says most pre-service teachers were shocked by their initial misconceptions about urban schools, and how much the American media played into the imagery of danger and high risk students. Yes I believe that most western media further entrenches racial and class bias, but I also have first hand experience with what really happens in an inter city school. I had a friend who was stabbed to death behind my middle school. Close friends beaten, stabbed and shot various times throughout and all around my high school and I saw the increase in drug use, traffic, gang violence and hate crimes. These weren't misconceptions perpetrated by media, these were realities, usually young people taking advantage of imbalanced and chaotic relationships in the community. And they go hand in hand with the wonderful teachers, and incredible friends I had at the same time. I don't think anything should be downplayed or explained away, and that you should take each school, student body and community on an individual basis. I disagreed with some of Daniels points on the actual physical construction of educational spaces, schools, community housing, etc. While some of the factors do make some sense, there are also practical reasons why suburban schools are often more open, inviting and modern. Space is limited in developed downtown areas, and building brand new buildings that implement a sense of openness are often impractical. Also, most were built in the 50's, 60's and 70's, and reflect the architectural style and design of that time. As the suburbs move ever outwards, they have undeveloped open land to work on, possibilities of real urban planning for things like space, and the schools are new. The older "prison" style schools need not be seen in that light, especially since there are positive aspects that can be stressed, like the history and community of that school, which new suburban schools can't draw upon, and also the closeness of the student body, so they can be more involved.
Finally, I was happy to see the reference to Shadd's work on exposing the myth of Canadian multiculturalism and racial harmony. I think Daniel's is quite accurate in underlying that we aren't a egalitarian social mosaic, but rather feel compelled to promote that image and live up to our high minded ideals, without changing any of the realities on the ground. I was exposed to a lot of these principles and the history through a class on African Canadian history at UofT, and these notions of hidden racism and their lasting effects was eye opening. This echoes the points Daniels makes (of course much more nuanced than my summary), but I do want to maybe challenge her to provide methods for changing that hidden racism. Simply stating that it's an issue doesn't move us close enough to changing the paradigm of being one big "happy family", as so many of us teachers want to be. I also want to follow up on such things as the Afrocentric school in Toronto and what kind of results/impact it is having since it's inception. I guess to wrap it all up, Daniels presents a very compelling summary, exposition and discussion on issues very close to me, and issues which frankly should be front and center in Canadian society, not just in the realm of education. However, where do we go from acknowledging all of this? What is the next step, not in talking about it, but in direct action. She mentions the qualities and philosophies needed for new, adaptable and effective leaders, but I found her call to arms a little too abstract. Yes, we need to be sensitive and aware of racial/social/economic/gender issues, and everything else, but where does that take our teaching style, lesson planning, conflict resolution skills, and everything else involved with teaching. Maybe I'm asking a lot to be shown for the first week of classes, and the first reading. I'm hoping these issues will be tackled in greater detail, not just in a "share our feelings" kind of way, but developing tools and resources to clearly delineate right and wrong, and how much of the grey area we can wade through. Sorry for rambling so much, I know a lot of this was just relating my experiences, but it was a hard article to stay on topic with, and way too many important issues to ignore. Thanks ~Peter
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