Whose history?

The big news in Toronto is that the school board has voted in favour of implementing what they call "Black-Focused" or "Africentric" schools. Apparently, up to 40% of black students in any given year do not graduate from high school in Toronto, and these new schools are supposed to help.

The schools will be open to students of all backgrounds, but will teach a black-focused curriculum. The Toronto District School Board plans to pilot the program in three regular high schools and one alternative school, starting in the next school year.

I'm not sure how this proposal got voted through, because I have yet to meet a single person who thinks it's a good idea. Everyone I talk to is worried that it's going to lead to segregationist tendencies and increased racism among Toronto teens. The black community in Toronto has been bitterly divided over the subject for months.

Toronto is known for being one of the most multicultural cities in the world. We have residents who've come here from every corner of the planet. I live in a neighbourhood that's primarily Korean, with a smaller population of Iranians mixed in. If you go northwest for a short drive, you'll find yourself in a Russian neighbourhood. There are multiple Chinatowns, a Little India, a Little Italy/Portugal, a Jewish area (no one has the nerve to name it - people might be offended by "Jewtown"), and many others. The high schools in each neighbourhood reflect the dominant local population.

So, while I do agree that it doesn't make sense to teach British history as THE only history that's worth knowing, I don't think it's much of an improvement to divide the city into Black Schools and Everyone Else's Schools. How does this help the kids from Sri Lanka, for example?

I don't claim to have an answer, but I have been mulling it over a fair bit. Jameil at Jameil, Et Cetera: Exercises in Fabulosity has been writing on related issues lately, and she got me to thinking.

My skin is white, but my history isn't British history. The only mention of Jewish history in my public school career was a unit on the Holocaust. I don't identify strongly with my Jewish roots, but I still feel that it's insufficient to reduce over 5000 years of Jewish history down to the story of how a lot of Jews were killed in World War II. It's definitely important to learn about the Holocaust, but for a long time I didn't want to be Jewish. What I had learned was that "being Jewish" was equal to "being a victim". At least "my" history got a mention.

Anyway, I'm rambling, mostly because this is a sprawling subject. I'd be interested in hearing what others have to say. This is a problem that is unique to our time. Is there any way we can do justice to all the history that deserves to be told, within the limits of school hours and the need to teach all the other subjects? If not, what then?