view . spring 2008
7
“Nothing is taboo,” David Watkins BA ’87, BEd ’89 says of his teaching
methods. His techniques include having students create a comic book
superhero to address problems exclusive to black people, discussing
what he calls the “hero deficit” in their community, creating a family
tree and relating the motivation and rationale of the slave trade to
their own experience.
For Watkins, who often has other students sit in on his class, it’s all
about properly presenting history. Those who feel they have a stake in
the subject matter find it exciting and will want to learn, he says.
That’s especially important in teaching African-Canadian history,
where he starts by discussing students’ current situation and then has
them work back to deconstruct their story.
He says too many black students harbour negative stereotypes
and perceptions of themselves and he refers to their “damaged
culture”, based on video games and movies.
By deconstructing and understanding their history, he says,
students feel a sense of pride and self-worth.
Five years ago, Watkins’ innovative teaching methods led him to
return to his alma mater, the University of Windsor, where he helped
organize the first African Diaspora Youth Conference. About 70
Canadian and U.S. high school students of African descent attended
that first conference. And on May 11 and 12, he anticipates 250
students from Toronto, Windsor and Detroit will discuss the topic of
the African Diaspora, their common heritage, life and career
aspirations and visit area museums and other venues. This year’s
theme is Sankofa
(which, in the Akan language of Ghana, means
roughly go back and take):
Learning from the past to build the future.
Watkins says the idea for the conference grew out of an alumni
gathering in Toronto. Working with Dr. Cecil Houston, Dean of Arts
and Social Sciences, and high school counsellors John Solarski and
Marna MacPherson of the Toronto District School Board, the group
tried to find a way to help the mostly black students on the verge of
dropping out of school find their identity and continue their studies
at the post-secondary level.
The result was a “life-changing” experience summed up by one of
Watkins’ students, who said the conference made him feel like not just
a black student, but a student.
For Watkins, the conference is especially satisfying because it hits
home. His mother Leverda and sister Abby are also UWindsor alumnae,
and he holds fond memories of his own “challenging and rewarding”
experience: “You weren’t just a student number, you were an actual
student.”
Watkins’ approach to African-Canadian history includes strong
support for the controversial black-focused or African-centred schools
initiative being considered in Toronto. Its proponents cite a near 50
percent dropout rate among blacks and the need for an alternative school
or schools that focuses on their own culture, history and spiritual identity.
To be sure, critics, including Premier Dalton McGuinty, argue that the
proposal smacks of segregation. Newspaper columnist Ike Awgu adds
statistics of dropout or failure rates are not useful because the term
“black” masks differences between different communities. For instance,
he argues Canadian-born blacks from specific foreign nationalities
excel in high school while others consistently underperform.
For his part, Watkins says that such a school would not necessarily
have an entirely all-black student body and faculty, and he describes the
movement as an idea whose time has come.
He objects to the argument that a black-focused school is
segregationist. He says his mother grew up in Arkansas, and was
subjected to forced segregation; students at the Toronto mainly black
schools would attend by choice.
Black-focused studies would, for example, include writer Langston
Hughes and poet Maya Angelou in its literature curriculum, instead of
just William Shakespeare, said Watkins.
He uses the analogy of a good football coach who, instead of
putting a player who isn’t prepared into the game, takes him aside and
works with him until he’s ready. That helps the whole team, he says.
Watkins summarized his position on the need to stanch the flow
of students dropping out of school in a recent TV panel discussion.
He says one parent told him she wanted her kids to attend the same
school as his. “I said I do, too – in university.”
❍
v
David Watkins, one of five Canadians to receive
the 2007 Governor General’s Award for Excellence
in Teaching Canadian History, favours an
unconventional approach in the classroom.
David Watkins with Her Excellency the Right
Honourable Michaëlle Jean.
