Dave Bowden, National Post 

The Toronto District School Board's curriculum is too ''colonial,'' and the board is resistant to change, according to one of its trustees.

Board members stymied Josh Matlow's push at a Wednesday committee meeting for curriculum changes that better reflect Toronto's diverse student body. Mr. Matlow said yesterday he suspects it is because he has been such an outspoken critic of the planned Africentric school.

"The very fact that I was the individual trustee to [propose changes] means that it must be in some way an affront to their Africentric school project," he said, referring to his fellow trustees.

Mr. Matlow has opposed the Africentric school idea since it was first floated in late 2007. He said it does not do enough to address the concerns of marginalized students within the school system -- be they of African descent or otherwise.

Instead, he suggested wide-sweeping curriculum changes that would move the curriculum away from what he called " an emphasis on colonial history" and allow students of diverse ethnicities to relate to material being taught in class.

"This has always been my objection to anything being 'centric,'" he said. "We can't teach students math or science, for example, through an African lens. But it also shouldn't be through a European lens."

One example he gave was science, suggesting it could be taught through the achievements of non-European inventors.

Trustee Cathy Dandy defended board members' decision to shelve Mr. Matlow's proposal, saying it was "irrelevant" given that some schools have already implemented black and African culture classes.

"The motion is in actual fact kind of redundant. The board is already doing all that work [that Mr. Matlow calls for] and doing it pretty methodically," she said.

Three schools have inserted Africentric content into their curriculum: Flemington Public School, Grey Owl Jr. Public School and Carleton Village Public School. In addition, 20 TDSB schools offer a Grade 11 African history course, while approximately 10 elementary schools offer black cultural programs.

Meanwhile, school board staff are currently in the process of enrolling students for the Africentric Alternative School. The board needs a minimum of 40 students enrolled by March in order for the school to open in September of this year, but hadn't signed up half that many students earlier this month.

Mr. Matlow said these programs operate on too small a scale and fail to address the concerns of many marginalized students.

"We shouldn't be distracted by creating the Africentric school," he said. "Every single school needs to be able to address the needs of our students as best as we can [and] needs to be able to have a culture of inclusion."

Mr. Matlow said he will try again to convince his colleagues at the board's next meeting on Feb. 4.

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