By Neil Armstrong
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| Photo contributed Luther Brown, Principal of the Africentric Alternative School, TDSB |
After 28 years working at the Toronto
District School Board (TDSB), veteran educator and principal, Luther Brown,
will retire at the end of the school year on June 30.
Since February 1, 2017, he has been the
principal of the Africentric Alternative School – an appointment that was
welcomed by many in the African Canadian community.
Audley Salmon, TDSB superintendent of
education, says Brown is an outstanding educator.
“He’s just been such a strong advocate
for the Africentric community but also for all the communities that he has
served as principal. One of his strongest qualities is his ability to make connections
with students, with staff, but particularly with community. And we’ve seen that
in the Africentric school because of the fact that he just has a very endearing
personality and he understands the issues of the community.”
Salmon says Brown is very well informed
on issues of equity, is inclusive and passionate about working with underserved
students and relevant communities,
in general.
Brown, who is pursuing a PhD in
education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University
of Toronto, says he is looking forward to complete this postgraduate degree and
to publish a book “that is helpful with educating black students.”
“The thesis is about finding out from
students what are their concerns about education and so what can we do to
change things. But it’s looking to see how we can change the achievement
trajectory based on what students themselves are telling us. The goal is to
look at students who have graduated, students who are in college or are
working, or who are unemployed but have graduated school. They can tell us a
little bit about their experience as students that might give us an opportunity
to find ways of meeting their needs differently.”
He is hoping that his findings will
result in presentations at workshops and conferences.
Brown attended Redwood Primary School
in Dover Castle, St. Catherine, Jamaica, then went to Dinthill Technical High
School and from there attended Mico Teachers College and eventually to the
University of Wisconsin-Stout in the United States where he earned a BSc in
industrial education.
After graduating from high school,
where he studied engineering, he worked at Alcan Jamaica Limited for a short
time and while there discovered that teaching was what he really wanted to do
so he went to Mico.
When he left the teachers college he
worked at Calabar High School for a while and opened the design and tech shop
at the school working along with other teachers to offer woodwork, metalwork,
drafting, among other things.
Brown said this was the first time one
of the traditional high schools dabbled in technology and they experienced
success.
From there he went to University of
Wisconsin-Stout and when he completed his studies returned to Jamaica where he
became an education officer with the Ministry of Education.
His role there was in radio production
in the Educational Broadcasting Services (EBS) where he got his live radio
experience.
He drew on this experience in Toronto
when he volunteered as a producer/radio host of the three-hour weekly show
‘Caribbean Crucible’ at CHRY 105.5FM, a campus-community radio station at York
University, from 1988 to 2015.
Brown immigrated to Canada on December
25, 1983 and did a lot of odd jobs because teachers were not being hired but
instead were being laid off.
Eventually he secured a contract in teaching
in September 1991 and started working at Brookview Middle School where
eventually he was promoted to vice-principal. When he left there he moved on to
Bala Avenue Community School as vice-principal.
After spending half of a year there, he
went to Lambton Park Community School as acting principal and then went on to Portage
Trail Middle School where he spent two years as principal before being called
to go to Brookhaven Public School in the same position.
Having spent five years there he felt
that it was time to change so he went to the Toronto School Administrators’ Association
as the Chair to advocate on behalf of school administrators to better serve the
cause of students’ learning.
He was the principal of O’Connor Public
School before going to his current position.
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| Photo contributed Audley Salmon, TDSB Superintendent of Education |
Brown describes his tenure at the
Africentric Alternative School as being successful in many regards, noting that
the increased number of community participants, like the Caribbean African
Canadian Social Services (CAFCAN)
and A Different Booklist, engaging the school tells him that things are moving
in the right direction.
“Student leadership is one of the
things that we’re really proud of,” says Brown, noting that students of grades
7 and 8 take on extracurricular activities and operate various clubs.
Paul Osbourne, co-chair of the School
Council, says Brown has contributed strong leadership and his level of caring
is seen by the children, parents and staff.
“I think it is important that this is
somebody that wanted to contribute, somebody who came from the community and
somebody who has those links to actually enhance what’s going on at the
school,” says the father of four children – two graduated from the school and two
are currently there in grades 5 and 7.
He says for many of the children Brown
is like a second father.
“He really treats the children like family and
in many ways that might be unconventional -- this would be professionally --
but I think it works with our children that they see someone such as Luther as
again a family member, a second father, somebody that they can come to when
they’ve got questions. When little children are sad they can go to him and also
he’s real, he’s genuine.”
Osbourne says as a person of African
descent he thinks it is very important that “our children see that in the
educational system leadership is reflected in who they are as people of African
descent and they see that piece, and he demonstrates it at a high level.”
He said the school community is sad to
see Brown go but also happy to know that this is his decision and wishes him
the best moving forward.
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| Photo contributed Paul Osbourne, Co-Chair of the School Council, Africentric Alternative School |
“When
you serve you hope that you serve in a way that allows people to have kind
thoughts about you when you’re no longer participating there. But you hope for
a little bit more than that, you’re hoping that some of the things that you
tried to get people to practice they will continue to do and improve on,” says
Brown commenting on the fact that students, teachers and parents will miss his
presence at the TDSB.
In terms of the Ontario government’s recent
changes to the education sector, he says the Africentric school will survive.
“We will more than survive because this
is not the first time that education is coming into that kind of a focus.
Things are changing, things will change but dedicated professionals make
education work in spite of how politics or politicians or just the world is
operating. Schools always find a way to make it work.”
But he is concerned that when people
look from the outside at education they think it is a lot easier than it is and
“because we’ve all gone through school we seem to think that we know how
schools operate and we don’t.”
“One of the biggest pronouncements that
people like to make about education and teachers and so on is that they get
these long holidays. People don’t quite realize that the way teachers are paid
the time is squished into the 190 days of active school but the pay is spread
out over time. So it’s not like people
are getting free holidays.”
As principal of the Africentric school,
Brown says he is inspired daily by how bright the students are, the growth of
leadership among them and “a kind of pride of self” that he sees in the
students is heartening.
“Students are willing to challenge and
they’re learning how to question things and ask questions and disagree with
positions that people might take without being rude and without being perceived
as stepping outside of their lane as people sometimes like to say.”
The principal believes students must learn
to challenge the status quo as it is the only way that change happens.
“These students are going to be working
in environments that are foreign to us. Some of the environments that they’re
going to be working in we don’t know them yet. So, we have to teach them so
they are asking questions that will help them to become the creative
individuals that will meet whatever is coming at them.”
Brown said he is proudest when he sees
educational professionals, like teachers or educational assistants, “come to an
awareness that each child comes to them as this special gift and see them try
to work with them as individuals and move them along.”
“It’s one of the proudest things about
being a principal is to see people grow. I think for me as well, from a
professional principal’s standpoint, you look and you see you’ve had teachers
in the various schools that you worked, you see the leadership potential in
them, you suggest to them that they should become leaders and even when they’re
reluctant and when they push back and when they eventually agree and you see
them make the move – it’s awesome.”
Brown said he is happy that he was
asked to come to the Africentric Alternative School because he had always been
working wherever he has for students to become better at achieving and become
well-rounded citizens.
“It was good to come to the Africentric
school to try to figure out how best to work with black students and see them
as a group and try to learn from them how best to teach them so that they can
become better.”
For him, this was an amazing experience
in learning more “about black people and how to educate black people in a world
that is not necessarily fully encouraging of that.
“It’s evolving but we still have a
need, we still have academic achievement group lagging. We have the individuals
who are doing amazing things, getting scholarships, going off to universities,
going off to colleges, in trades, opening their own businesses, etc. but the
opportunity to work at the Africentric Alternative School allows me another
opportunity to see myself as a black educator and how I can contribute
differently, which is partly what I’m hoping will materialize through my
doctoral study.”
He started his doctoral studies before
he came to the Africentric school but this experience has given him “a
different depth of understanding of black students and black students’ needs
and how professionals – white and black and Chinese and whatever the
nationality – how they can better understand how to serve black children.”
Brown is married to Reverend Paulette
Brown and they are the proud parents of three adult children: Luther, Kayode and
Zahra.
[This story has been published in the North American Weekly Gleaner, May 9-15, 2019.]
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