The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

This is absolutely positively never going to happen until Black folks start to create their own schools.

This is already being done in many schools, but they are owned and operated by us.Several in Harlem I know of have African centered curriculums.

Traditional white run schools are nothing more than white pride institutions and this has worked perfectly for them so what makes anyone think they are going to change now?

Stop begging white folk and let’s create our own.

I’m a brotha who does not agree with so-called afro-centric education, because we do not live in an afro-centric world. If a parent wants their child to have an afro-centric understanding of life, then it should be done at home. I really couldn’t give a crap if my kid learns about Kwanzaa or any of that stuff at school. What I do care aboutm however, is that he is learning how to read, write, to do mathematics properly — and I frankly don’t think one needs to be versed on afrocentricity to learn those things.

If it works for some, good. If it doesn’t, let the parents find something else.

Unquestionably, the social structure has a role to play in supporting and bolstering the esteem of the nation’s children. This should not be left up to just the parents, because much of the divisiveness, and prejudice, that exists in America, is a result of institutional frameworks that have been all encomposing, beyond the local family’s ability to combat. Yes, we need afrocentric education.

When babies are taught from the cradle to the grave that they and their ancestors have always been positive contributors to world culture, and events, people will be able to function equally.

Eurocentrics have started out in the middle of history with Rome and Greece, severing Blacks from their earlier classical cultures. A people should be perceived by the best that they have produced. Not the negative that has been projected by America’s yellow journalism.

http://leslester.blogspot.com

Our ancestors did not incarnate themselves of divine wisdom so some American “kid” with strong African features can be “proud” of herself.

Our *wise* ancestors, the Great Ones of Old, developed a culture designed to live in the natural environment. It follows that our ancestors were scientific—not white-mind-lab-coat scientific but holistically scientific.

The history of the “bad stuff” recessive-gene patriarchs did to us is not enough to make a whole African education. Here is a basic example: when you teach “African multiplication” we eliminate the need for multiplication tables. Using multiplication tables to teach our young people how to multiply numbers is the white way of teaching. This is just one little issue of thousands that must be examined and I am sure this is taking place right now—because it is only natural—and nature selects for African people!

All through my schooling back home in Africa i rememnber the carricullum would glance over African history and spend weeks on the French revolution. the covers of our notebooks had pictures of “great inventors” like Alexander Graham Bell, “great explorers” like Dr. Livingston (you know the ones who ‘discovered’ this and that on the continent), “great scientists” like Darwin….and this was all available at a school in one of the most remote parts of East Africa!

IMO Afrocentric education is over-romanticized in America, but i see why; while we had a cursory look at our own history, most African-American kids did not until radical changes had to be made in the carriculae(sp) that eventually sprung the Afrocentric schooling paradigm.is it working? well, we’ll have to see, but i wish i had such an education. my daughter goes to an African centered school and she’s doing very well in reading, science and math, but my wife and I are also actively involved in her education (on or off school). when she saw naked tribesmen on TV and remarked wronglfully that they were africans i was quick to correct and enlighten her on the people she was seeing who happened to be New Guineans whereupon her interest peaked and her understanding grew to know that not ALL naked, dark skinned people on TV are Africans, she saw a picture of a Touareg girl with European features and she couldn’t believe she was African….so the learning commenced again.

“victims of one generation are the perpetraters of the next”….break the cycle!

“If this is true, then why does OUR villiage have to depend on government funding and the whims of teacher unions?”

If other groups are getting the funding, why not us?!

The issue is whether the strings attached covertly mandate a Eurocentric approach.

John L.

If other groups are getting the funding, why not us?!

They are not getting funding to mandate an ethnic-based teaching program.

Being a person who spent grades Pre-K through grade 5 at a private school that taught the afro-centric curriculum, I am a living testament that this form of education is better for our younger generations. Seeing as how the world in some subtle ways is more prejudice now than it was 40 to 50 years ago, it is more important than ever to give our children a realistic view of their heritage while learning, especially our young Black males. Afro-Centric education is neither prejudiced or biased, it simply takes the Black world and relates it to learning. It does what an HBCU does ten years before college. I believe that every city should have a school that focuses on Afro-Centric learning, whether it be a public-institution, or a private one.

Seeing as how the world in some subtle ways is more prejudice now than it was 40 to 50 years ago,

Wow.

I wish I had stumbled upon this posting during the time it was being discussed.  At any rate I will still comment because it is an issue dear to my heart and one many of us currently face.
To the person who still gets “the warm fuzzies inside” when you hear the term “Afrocentric Education”.  Why do you think you still feel the warm fuzzies?  Could it be that maybe it helped build a solid foundation for you to stand on?  You are absolutely correct when you state that “it takes a village to raise a child” but let us not forget that a major and integral part of a village are schools.  Without effective teaching in Afrocentrics or multiculturalism you would not have had the opportunity to see life as a person of color from the perspective of the oppressed or as some would have it, people of color.  
In many cases, no matter how nurturing an environment, I think we could all agree that one will not be as successful as he or she could without a proper and effective education.  A child needs to know where he or she comes from in order to know who they are and where they are going.  A traditional anglo-saxon western education did not provide me nor any of our children with the details we need to understand the journey our ancestors travelled nor the plight we are currently living as a result.  
You may have been fortunate enough to grow up in a society with the resources and support you needed to succeed.  Unfortunately, the reality is not many of us who reside and grow up in the inner-city have that luxury.  A village is so far gone it’s scary!  Today many of our children are born and raised in unfavorable conditions by no fault of their own.  These population of children who grow in poverty have a difficult time functioning.  Much of it has to do with the lack of the parent’s educational attainment.  Of course there are other factors associated as well.  How could a child live a normal life if many of his developmental pathways are not secure?  If a child’s cognitive is not right, his emotional consequently will not be right.  If his health is not right then his cognitive will not be right.  If his social capacity is not right then his mental state cannot be right.  Everything is connected and everyone is needed!  TEaching a child early in his life about the struggles and accomplishments of his people WILL lead to a greater success rate for them without a doubt!