By RON FANFAIR

Canadian elementary school teachers have a moral and professional responsibility to protect the delicate sense of visible minority children in their care, says celebrated author Austin Clarke.

"I consider teaching elementary school the most important stage in the process of the training of our youth," Clarke said at the Elementary Teachers of Toronto (ETT) Race & Equity Committee International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination celebration.

"You have a responsibility that's paramount and what you do in the classroom marks a child and fashions that individual's socialization in a civilized society…The damage done to their psyche at this tender age may result in permanent injury."

Clarke, who served as a visiting professor at several distinguished universities in Canada and the USA, including Yale and Duke, reminded elementary school teachers that they provide the foundation of a child's mental and physical health development.

"Your role becomes even more crucial now," he said, "at a time when there is the presumption that some children are stupid and they do not deserve serious attention because they are Black, reside in low-income housing or come from immigrant families."

Clarke noted that these social and economic stigmas are philosophical contradictions to his upbringing in Barbados where it was understood that the school was the extension of the home, reflecting strict discipline and moral guidance.

"You knew where your children were in the West Indies," said Clarke, the winner of the prestigious 2002 Giller Prize for his novel The Polished Hoe and this year's Commonwealth Writers Best Book award. "You knew they were cared for and there was no reference to colour or social status."

As part of the celebrations held last Thursday night at the Travelodge Hotel, the ETT Race & Equity Committee recognized four elementary school students with the Doris Ferguson Memorial bursary awards for their anti-racism work.

Ferguson, a prominent member of Toronto's Black community, died in July 1994. She worked for several years with the then Scarborough Board of Education, serving as a liaison counsellor for the Black community for the last 11 years before she retired in 1992.

Ferguson was affiliated with many community organizations, including the Ontario Black History Society, the Universal Negro Improvement Association and the defunct Negro Choral Society.

"She stood for equity and believed that Canada should be a multicultural society," said Lawrence Heights Middle School principal Janice Searles who, along with her husband Chester, made the presentations to the recipients. "The students receiving these awards certainly reflect her ideals."

This year's bursary recipients are Sadora Asefaw, Ross Mayers, Yasmin Parker and Aditi Raut.

A Grade Eight student at Ellesmere-Statton Public School, Asefaw recently established a student organization, Justice: Not Just Us, to raise the consciousness of some of the global ills that afflict society.

"We have written letters and made calls to local politicians expressing belief that Canada should give more aid to children in Africa with AIDS and also to candy manufacturers reminding them of chocolate companies' use of child slave labour in the Ivory Coast," said Asefaw.

"Our student group will be pro-active, leading the way in an effort to secure social justice."

Mayers, a Grade Seven student at Rouge Valley Public School, shares his expression of thoughts and ideas on equity issues and human rights through poems while Parker - a Grade Six student at Howard Public School - is a member of a youth leadership program that encourages students to become productive citizens.

Raut, a Grade Eight student at J.G. Althouse Middle School, promotes ethno-cultural diversity in her school through announcements and displays.

Source: Share Online News http://www.sharenews.com
March 27, 2003

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