Amid debate, race-based school thrives

Learning centre for 35 native students celebrates its sixth year Still, controversy mounts over proposal for black-focused facility

While debate mounted yesterday over the notion of black- focused schools, a small race- based program for native students carried on in its sixth year just blocks from Queen’s Park. The Toronto District School Board spends about $ 245,000 a year to provide three high school teachers — one of them First Nations — and supplies for the 35 students in the Native Learning Centre program run out of the basement of Native Family and Child Services, near Yonge and College Sts. The alternative program starts each day with a traditional native circle. Teachers focus wherever possible on native art, literature and history. Students can study Ojibwa as well as a range of high school credits, and community elders help lead field trips to learn trapping and snowshoeing.

“I don’t know about other racial groups, but for these at- risk students, this kind of program works. After six years, we had our first graduates who went on to post- secondary education last June,” said Andrew Gold, principal of nearby Jarvis Collegiate, which provides the staff and classroom supplies.

“ These students raise the bar on what it means to be at- risk; three have committed suicide in the past two years,” said Gold.

“ Many do not live at home and many have tried high school before. Most of them would never walk into a traditional school building.” A spokesperson for education minister Gerard Kennedy suggested yesterday alternative programs for particular groups of at- risk students are different than self- standing schools for students of one racial background — something Premier Dalton McGuinty has spoken out against. The Native Learning Centre operates as a partnership with Native Family and Child Services, which provides the space and refers many of the teens to the program in its basement, which allows for easy access to the social services upstairs.

“ These students are often very much at risk. Many don’t live at home and have tried mainstream schools and left. So to have a program that is not as forbidding as a regular school can make a difference in retaining them,” said Gold.

“ They resolve conflicts using a traditional native peace circle. And students can take a senior social science credit called First Nations identity, an interdisciplinary course that mixes history and art.”

For the first time this spring, graduates of the program enrolled in higher learning; some at the Ontario College of Art and Design, and others in transitional programs to prepare for university and community college.