Schools have several goals – primarily the transfer of skills and knowledge. There’s a rather overwhelming body of evidence supporting the premise that learning happens most effectively within a cultural context familiar to the learner. It seems to me that the proponents of this school are trying to maximize learning by minimizing the degree to which issues of context create barriers to learning.

You and I are also in agreement – if it were privately funded there would be nothing to discuss. However, it is not.

And again we are in agreement – racism does still exist, and the Toronto School board endorsing the creation of a race-based school has just given that bad weed of racism an official platform to grow and fester once more.

I do not agree that racial discrimination has been conquered. I believe it still exists.

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Shit, what will the loony-Left think of next?!?! Soon, I am sure those creepy weirdo-pinkos will be demanding all male schools in the future!

But what we’re talking about is not voluntary association like a religion. We are talking about RACE. We are talking about discriminating based on SKIN COLOUR. This is exactly what we have fought against and (for the most part) ended for the last 40 years. Now it is returning, in the guise of “care” but really thinly veiling the underlying beliefs that some races are better than others. Or in this case, some races have more “problems” than others, SOLELY BASED ON THE COLOUR OF THEIR SKIN. This is wrong.

Creates a great case for school vouchers.

It’s not hard to imagine that after a few “successful” years, the school would expand the territory it covers, or be replicated in another part of the city. Soon you have 2 schools covering more areas, similar to the duplication already existing with public & separate school boards.

If your child lives in any area covered by 2 schools, and one is all black kids, and the other has relatively few black kids, where would you send your kid? Probably to the one that matches your skin colour.

This ‘soft’ form of apartheid could soon morph into true apartheid. “Your kid wants to go to the black/white school? Why? There’s a white/black school just down the street. Go there.”

I’m all for recognizing that concentrations of ethnic groups exist in various parts of the country. Schools are free to reflect this reality in many ways, without resorting to setting up publicly-funded schools dedicated to them. They can have festivals, dances, dinners, plays, student groups, language classes, etc.

How about a Chinese school? Caribbean? Southeast Asian? How about we set up a “white only” school next? Let’s just see what the reaction to that one is.

The media should be HOUNDING Dalton McGuinty night and day on his complete reversal and his selective pandering to PC cultures.