Toward
the Centered School in Urban Areas
The Creed of the Centered School
Student
By Molefi Kete Asante
The Afrocentric Creed
I have faith in myself
I have faith in my teachers
I will accept my duties and responsibilities
I respect others and seek their
respect I have self respect
I have self-control
I can learn if I study hard I will
learn because I will study hard
I love myself, and loving myself, I will be myself
and know myself I am the one who
is talking
El Credo Afrocentrico
Creo en my capacidad
Tengo confianza en mis maestros
Acepto mis responsibilades y tareas
Tengo auto-respeto
Si, puedo controlar mis emociones
Si, puedo aprender se estudio mucho
Aprendare porque me dedico a mis estudios
Me quiero y en mi amor para mi mismo, me realizo
y me conosco Hablo yo en esta oracion
The Basic Tenets of the Centered
School
1. At the centered school the
student’s culture must be taken into account in every subject
and at every grade level. Where there is multiplicity of
cultures then the teacher must seek to demonstrate during the
school term that she or he has an interest in centering the students
of many cultures in the subject.
2. A centered school
seeks to create lessons, scopes, and sequences, that reflect an
authentic voice concept. Centering shall be the centerpiece
of the classroom process and it shall be pursued by seeking all
ways to attach the student to history concepts, mythology, science,
mathematics, nature, motifs, and personalities that pervade the
lessons.
3. A centered school operates
on the principle of scientific generation where the school principal
is a generator for the building and the teacher is a generator
for the classroom. A generator is one who energized those who
are directly connected to him or her. Thus, the principal in a
centered school must energize the faculty and the teacher must
energize the students.
4. A centered school is a positive
school where the environment itself reflects the centeredness
of the students. The school is clean, it is brightly painted,
it is environmentally centered to reflect the student population,
and it is filled with color images, posters, and slogans of achievement.
Each classroom is an invitation to learning.
5. A centered classroom is a
laboratory for creative discussion, discourse, debate and critical
thinking. The idea is to make every significant concept live by
discussion. In such a classroom the teacher corrects false information
and irrational views with a sensitivity that embraces discussion.
6. A centered school’s discipline
is based on respect for knowledge in both the bringer of knowledge
and the seeker of knowledge. This means that the students are
taught to respect themselves, the search for knowledge, the teacher
and the other students. But discipline is based on knowledge and
the willingness of the teacher to listen to and to accept questions
from every student. The good teacher is always able to say, “I
do not know the answer at this time.”
7. A centered school celebrates
the culture of the students. Teachers feel comfortable wearing
the fashions of the student’s cultures, presenting speakers and
performers from the culture, and infusing their lessons with illustrations
from the culture. A student in such a school understands the historical
role his or her people have played in world events.
8. A centered school involves
the parents in the process of centering the students. However,
it may be necessary to center the parents before they understand
how the center their children. At public meetings, possibly held
at the school, the principal or designee should review the ideas
behind the centered school. A brief history of the Afrocentric
school concept, with its applicability to centered schools, might
be necessary.
9. A centered school is high
achieving school where principal, teachers, and students meet
regularly (at least once a month) to re-pledge themselves to academic
and professional excellence. A high achieving school always has
an academic and a cultural goal. The academic goal is to succeed
in being the best school possible on the basis of the credentials
of the students. In addition, the high achieving school seeks
to undergird all subjects with the cultural component.
10. A centered school asks the
question, Who are my students: In answering this question the
centered school seeks to apply principles of learning styles,
relational attributes, personality, and aesthetic sense to the
issues of achievement, discipline, and environment.
Created by Molefi Kete Asante,
1993
