A letter to Lee Jasper

Not from me but from Miss Snuffleupagus and an excellent letter it is too. Miss Snuffleupagus is a inner city black teacher who really seems to understand what's what and takes Lee Jasper to task over his suggestion of black only schools, apartheid in the UK.

Here's an extract, do read the whole thing:

"So you think the National Curriculum is at fault for not teaching enough black history. It is funny that we never teach any Chinese history (not at all), or even any Indian history (not at all), but Indian and Chinese kids seem to do just fine at school. I also find this recent new directive that black history must be taught a little strange. In all the schools I have known, black history has been taught for years. And yet, black kids still underachieve. Oh yes, it must be something to do with white teachers teaching it. It’s funny how the white kids I teach do well, even though I’m black.

Oh no, silly me, of course they do. I don’t hate white children the way white teachers hate black children. Or no, what is it again? Oh yes, they have ‘low expectations’ of them. Why do you think this? Because some report said that black Caribbean boys were not being entered for higher tiers at GCSE. And what of the African boys? And the Caribbean girls? Were we teachers not racist against them? Come on Lee! You know as well as I do that most white people can’t tell the difference between Africans and West Indians! And isn’t it just a bit odd that we should choose to pick on black Caribbean boys alone? If we hate black children, shouldn’t we hate them all?"