E Wayne Ross – Page 112 – Critical Theories in Education

“I love rock and roll…”

So, first last Sunday’s New York Times reminded me of my old age with their piece on the “Graying of the record store” and well, when your as old as Gumby and Pokey, going to the punk rock show is just not the same, but it’s still lot’s of fun even if you are gray.

Colin and I took in the Van’s Warped Tour at UBC’s Thunderbird Stadium today and there were many more multicolored mohawks in the crowd than there were 50-year-olds. (Colin estimated there were at least 5 or 6 folks my age at the show—and all of them were up front (including me) at the Joan Jett and the Blackhearts set).

Colin’s favorites of the day were goth-punkers AFI. I liked Anti-Flag and Joan Jett—who played her 80s hits plus tunes from her new album “Sinner,” including a cover of Sweet’s “A.C.D.C.” and an anti-Bush tune “Riddles.” And we both enjoyed NOFX and Bouncing Souls.

Best moment of the day was Fat Mike’s (NOFX) rant against religion and his introduction of the Christian metal act that followed them on stage as “Jerry Falwell’s ‘Underoath.'”

50 albums that changed music

In celebration of the the fiftieth year of the British pop album chart, The Observer struck a panel of “experts” (ames Bennett, Kitty Empire, Dave Gelly, Lynsey Hanley, Sean O’Hagan, Elle J Small, Neil Spence) to pick the 50 albums that changed music.

Here’s the Top 10 of The Observer‘s list along with their reasoning (see link below for the full list):

1 The Velvet Underground and Nico
The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967)
Though it sold poorly on its initial release, this has since become arguably the most influential rock album of all time. The first art-rock album, it merges dreamy, druggy balladry (‘Sunday Morning’) with raw and uncompromising sonic experimentation (‘Venus in Furs’), and is famously clothed in that Andy Warhol-designed ‘banana’ sleeve. Lou Reed’s lyrics depicted a Warholian New York demi-monde where hard drugs and sexual experimentation held sway. Shocking then, and still utterly transfixing.

Without this, there’d be no … Bowie, Roxy Music, Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Jesus and Mary Chain, among many others.
SOH

2 The Beatles
Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

There are those who rate Revolver (1966) or ‘the White Album’ (1968) higher. But Sgt Pepper’s made the watertight case for pop music as an art form in itself; until then, it was thought the silly, transient stuff of teenagers. At a time when all pop music was stringently manufactured, these Paul McCartney-driven melodies and George Martin-produced whorls of sound proved that untried ground was not only the most fertile stuff, but also the most viable commercially. It defined the Sixties and – for good and ill – gave white rock all its airs and graces.

Without this … pop would be a very different beast.
KE

3 Kraftwerk
Trans-Europe Express (1977)

Released at the height of punk, this sleek, urbane, synthesised, intellectual work shared little ground with its contemporaries. Not that it wanted to. Kraftwerk operated from within a bubble of equipment and ideas which owed more to science and philosophy than mere entertainment. Still, this paean to the beauty of mechanised movement and European civilisation was a moving and exquisite album in itself. And, through a sample on Afrika Bambaataa’s seminal ‘Planet Rock’, the German eggheads joined the dots with black American electro, giving rise to entire new genres.

Without this… no techno, no house, no Pet Shop Boys. The list is endless.
KE

4 NWA
Straight Outta Compton (1989)

Like a darker, more vengeful Public Enemy, NWA (Niggaz With Attitude) exposed the vicious realities of the West Coast gang culture on their lurid, fluent debut. Part aural reportage (sirens, gunshots, police radio), part thuggish swagger, Compton laid the blueprint for the most successful musical genre of the last 20 years, gangsta rap. It gave the world a new production mogul in Dr Dre, and gave voice to the frustrations that flared up into the LA riots in 1992. As befits an album boasting a song called ‘Fuck tha Police’, attention from the FBI, the Parents’ Music Resource Centre and our own Metropolitan Police’s Obscene Publications Squad sealed its notoriety.

Without this … no Eminem, no 50 Cent, no Dizzee Rascal.
KE

5 Robert Johnson
King of the Delta Blues Singers (1961)

Described by Eric Clapton as ‘the most important blues singer that ever lived’, Johnson was an intensely private man, whose short life and mysterious death created an enduring mythology. He was said to have sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in Mississippi in exchange for his finger-picking prowess. Johnson recorded a mere 29 songs, chief among them ‘Hellhound on My Trail’, but when it was finally issued, King of the Delta Blues Singers became one of the touchstones of the British blues scene.

Without this … no Rolling Stones, Cream, Led Zeppelin.
SOH

6 Marvin Gaye
What’s Going On (1971)

Gaye’s career as tuxedo-clad heart-throb gave no hint he would cut a concept album dealing with civil rights, the Vietnam war and ghetto life. Equally startling was the music, softening and double-tracking Gaye’s falsetto against a wash of bubbling percussion, swaying strings and chattering guitars. Motown boss Berry Gordy hated it but its disillusioned nobility caught the public mood. Led by the oft-covered ‘Inner City Blues’, it ushered in an era of socially aware soul.

Without this … no Innervisions (Stevie Wonder) or Superfly (Curtis Mayfield).
NS

7 Patti Smith
Horses (1975)

Who would have thought punk rock was, in part, kickstarted by a girl? Poet, misfit and New York ligger, Patti channelled the spirits of Keith Richards, Bob Dylan and Rimbaud into female form, and onto an album whose febrile energy and Dionysian spirit helped light the touchpaper for New York punk. The Robert Mapplethorpe-shot cover, in which a hungry, mannish Patti stares down the viewer, defiantly broke with the music industry’s treatment of women artists (sexy or girl-next-door) and still startles today.

Without this … no REM, PJ Harvey, Razorlight. And no powerful female pop icons like Madonna.
KE

8 Bob Dylan
Bringing it All Back Home (1965)

The first folk-rock album? Maybe. Certainly the first augury of what was to come with the momentous ‘Like a Rolling Stone’. Released in one of pop’s pivotal years, Bringing it All Back Home fused hallucinatory lyricism and, on half of its tracks, a raw, ragged rock’n’roll thrust. On the opening song, ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’, Dylan manages to pay homage to the Beats and Chuck Berry, while anticipating the surreal wordplay of rap.

Without this … put simply, on this album and the follow-up, Highway 61 Revisited, Dylan invented modern rock music.
SOH

9 Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley (1956)

The King’s first album was also the first example of how to cash in on a teenage craze. With Presleymania at full tilt, RCA simultaneously released a single, a four-track EP and an album, all with the same cover of Elvis in full, demented cry. They got their first million dollar album, the fans got a mix of rock-outs like ‘Blue Suede Shoes’, lascivious R&B and syrupy ballads.

Without this … no King, no rock and roll madness, no Beatles first album, no pop sex symbols.
NS

10 The Beach Boys
Pet Sounds (1966)

Of late, Pet Sounds has replaced Sgt Pepper’s as the critics’ choice of Greatest Album of All Time. Composed by the increasingly reclusive Brian Wilson while the rest of the group were touring, it might well have been a solo album. The beauty resides not just in its compositional genius and instrumental invention, but in the elaborate vocal harmonies that imbue these sad songs with an almost heartbreaking grandeur.

Without this … where to start? The Beatles acknowledged its influence; Dylan said of Brian Wilson, ‘That ear! I mean, Jesus, he’s got to will that to the Smithsonian.’
SOH

Here’s the full list, and as usual with this sort of thing there’s lots of fun to be had arguing about the selections.50 albums that changed music
Fifty years old this month, the album chart has tracked the history of pop. But only a select few records have actually altered the course of music. To mark the anniversary, Kitty Empire pays tribute to a sublime art form, and our panel of critics argues for 50 albums that caused a revolution. To see the 50, click here

Kitty Empire
Sunday July 16, 2006
Observer

A longside film, the pop album was the defining art form of the 20th century, the soundtrack to vast technological and social change. Once, sets of one-sided 78rpm phonograph discs were kept together in big books, like photographs in an album. The term ‘album’ was first used specifically in 1909, when Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite was released on four double-sided discs in one package. The first official top 10 round-up of these newfangled musical delivery-modes was issued in Britain on 28 July 1956, making the pop album chart 50 years old this month.
Singles were immediate, ephemeral things. Albums made pondering pop and rock into a valid intellectual pursuit. Friendships were founded, love could blossom, bands could be formed, all from flicking through someone’s album collection. Owning certain albums became like shorthand; a manifesto for everything you stood for, and against: the Smiths’ Meat is Murder , Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.

Before lasers replaced needles, albums had sides. They were a game of two halves, building towards an intermission; more than the sum of their constituent songs. At least, the good ones were. Some of them still are, except they can now last 70-plus minutes, over twice as long as their vinyl forebears. Is this bloat, or value for money? The debate rumbles on.

Entire lifestyles built up around albums, smoking dope to albums, having sex to albums. You lent your favourite albums out with trepidation; you ruefully replaced them, on CD, when they didn’t come back. Getting hitched paled into insignificance next to merging record collections with your loved one. Getting rid of the doubles made divorce unthinkable. Elastica once sang, of waking: ‘Make a cup of tea, put a record on.’ That’s how generations of hip young (and not so young) people have lived.

But for how much longer? Downloading favours the song, not the album. MP3 players favour personal playlists or shuffling. Listeners are already tiring of keeping company with an artist for an hour or more, as an album meanders beyond mere singles.

The album as we know it might not last another 50 years, maybe not even another 10. But just as artists show groups of paintings in galleries, songs will continue to be written in clumps, connected by theme or time, and presented to a public, just as the Nutcracker Suite once was.

On these pages are 50 clumps of songs, in descending order of importance, that we think caused a sea change in pop music, not always for the good, but without which many bands or entire genres would not exist. They are the sets of songs which have had the greatest lasting influence on music.

It was agonising, having to pick only 50. Why did we include NWA, but not Public Enemy? Probably because their influence was more pervasive. Why Fairport Convention and not The Incredible String Band? Because we had to plump for the single most influential album in British folk rock. And why no Rolling Stones? Because, brilliant though they are, they picked up an established musical idiom and ran with it rather than inventing something entirely new.

Our panel: James Bennett, Kitty Empire, Dave Gelly, Lynsey Hanley, Sean O’Hagan, Elle J Small, Neil Spencer.

Rouge Forum Update—Happy Bastille Day! (July 14, 2006)

Dear Friends,

The Rouge Forum No Blood For Oil web page is updated.

Of immediate interest are selected articles addressing the wars now involving Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine. Below we sought to select articles that are significant, yet not so widely spread that many people have already received them. There is a full complement of works on the page linked above.

Stratfor Red Alert on Hezbollah

Financial Times on the New Crisis in the Making

Sandy Tolan, author of Lemon Tree, on The Palestinian Crisis

Stephen Cohen on the New US Cold War on Russia

At the same time, it is important to remember the massive outpouring on May Day 2006, what was really a general strike in some areas and industries, and the underlying struggles, as well as community building, that made the huge demonstrations possible.

Here is one indicator of this ongoing piece of hope.

All over the US, border agents, ICE cops, and Homeland Security personnel are steadily attacking immigrant workers with raids on camps, work places, even homes and apartments. Here is a link on the recent LA police riot, attacking anti-racist demonstrators protesting the Minutemen.

At the same time, steady symphonies of deception coming from both parties of wealth seek to lure immigrants into the nationalism inherent in “get out the vote” projects, confusing elites’ “get out” enforcement projects with “get in with us,” shell games.

We are reworking our page on Immigration/Worker Rights, linked here.

On this page are several reports from colleagues in Oaxaca.

In addition, Glibert Gonzalez’s new book, Guest Workers or Colonized Labor?, Mexican Labor Migration in the U.S., offers important historical background. For those who come into this list from a literary view, see B. Traven‘s Jungle Novels.

Most of us, of course, face the question: What should school workers do? That’s taken up in this criticism of Jonathan Kozol’s recent “Education Manifesto.” It’s the most widely read piece on the Rouge Forum site so far this year.

Surely, the unions are dead-ends. At its July Representative Assembly, where NEA agreed to support, critically, the No Child Left Behind Act, delegates voted by a factor of at least three to one, NOT TO DISCUSS the wars on Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world; this from an educators’ union charged with feeding children to the war machine. An agreement to silence discussion is beneath contempt.

Here is a link to a Rouge Forum Broadside on why NEA supports the NCLB

Justice demands organization. New kinds of organization.

CDC reports smashes pernicious stereotypes about black youth

Tim Wise’s latest ZNet commentary details findings from a new Centers for Disease Control report, which which examines the rates at which students between grades 9-12 drink, take drugs, carry weapons, and engage in all forms of potentially destructive behavior.

First, youth in general are far less engaged in destructive activity than commonly believed. Rates of drug and alcohol use and abuse, for example, as well as violence and other forms of pathology tend to be much higher among adults, even as the young are disproportionately tagged as the problem.

But beyond that, the CDC notes that contrary to popular belief, it is not black youth, but rather whites who tend to lead the pack in these categories of deviance, and that among all youth who are either black, white or Latino, blacks almost invariably are the least likely to do drugs, drink, or carry weapons either on school grounds, or generally.

And, as Wise notes, these findings have been consistent for over a decade and consistently ignored by the media.

“Yet in virtually no year has the media seen fit to make an issue of disproportionate white pathology, or the relative good behavior of black youth. If black youth kill someone, it’s a headline; if they do something right, you’ll be lucky to hear about it at all.”

So here are some of the facts, compiled by CDC in 2005, which should be making the news:

White youth are 2.3 times more likely than black youth to drive drunk;

White males are a third more likely than black males to have carried a weapon in the past month (31.4 percent vs. 23.7) and fifty percent more likely to have taken a weapon to school (10.1 vs. 6.8);

Although black and white youth are equally likely to have tried cigarettes, whites are twice as likely to smoke currently (26 vs. 13 percent), and 3.3 times more likely to smoke at least a half-pack a day (11.7 vs. 3.5 percent);

Although white and black youth are roughly equally likely to have tried alcohol, white youth are fifty percent more likely to drink currently (46 percent vs. 31 percent), and nearly three times as likely to engage in episodic binge drinking (defined as having five or more drinks at a time, more than once a month). Indeed thirty percent of white youth have engaged in such heavy drinking, while only eleven percent of black youth have, meaning that white youth are nearly as likely to have binged more than once in the past month, as black youth are to have taken a drink at all;

Although there is no statistically significant difference between white and black youth when it comes to marijuana use, whites between grades 9-12 are almost 3.5 times more likely to have tried cocaine, twice as likely to be current coke users, twice as likely to have used inhalants, twice as likely to have used illegal steroids, 3.3 times as likely to have used hallucinogenic drugs, nearly four times as likely to have used methamphetamine, and slightly more likely to have used heroin or ecstasy. While it should be noted that only very small percentages of youth of any color have tried these harder drugs–the fact remains that blacks are typically the least likely to have done so.

Ray Davies gives the people what they want

One of my favorite concert experiences ever was the Ray Davies “Storyteller” tour in the mid-1990s, which I took in with Dave B. and Kevin Q. at the Berkshire Performing Arts Center in Massachusetts. So it was with great anticipation that I checked out Ray and his new band at the Commodore Ballroom last night and he did not disappoint.

Davies is undoubtedly one of the best songwriters in rock history and “Other People’s Lives” (his first solo album released earlier this year) proves he’s not lost his touch since he churned out all those classic Kinks songs.

Davies is no rock ‘n’ roll relic. His songs often express a wistful affection for the past (usually without being maudlin) and this is certainly evident in his new work. But, Davies avoids being trapped in the past (as an oldies act) and his new tunes were the most most energized and exciting parts of the Commodore show last night.

Set List (from memory so missing tunes and certainly not in order after the first couple of tunes)
I’m Not Like Everybody Else
Where Have All The Good Times Gone?
After the Fall
All She Wrote
Over My Head
Sunny Afternoon
Next Door Neighbor
Creatures of Little Faith
Run Away From Time
Shangri-La [One verse and chorus on request from crowd]
The Tourist
Things Are Going to Change (The Morning After)
All Day and All of the Night
Set Me Free
A Long Way From Home [Dedicated to Dave]
The Getaway (Lonesome Train)
Till The End of the Day
Stand Up Comic
You Really Got Me

Rev. Jim Rigby: Christians Who Want Democracy Must Stop Bowing to a Dictator Christ

Here’s a ZNet commentary by Rev. Jim Rigby, pastor of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX, and a longtime activist in movements concerned with gender, racial, and economic justice.

Rigby argues that Christianity is build upon a theology power, which contradicts the authority of Jesus’s teaching, which is found in truth. “To picture God in terms of power,” says Rigby, is “one of the great bait and switch gimmicks of all time. People within the power hierarchy proclaim that God is the ultimate authority, and then appoint themselves as God’s interpreters and enforcers. They are God’s humble bullies. It has been one of the most successful con games of all time.”

“Whereas American theology was born out of a hope for democracy, much of it is wedded to a picture of Christ as a benevolent dictator. Should we be surprised that a hierarchical cosmology would produce hierarchical churches and nations? Should we be surprised that religious nations that picture Christ as a loving dictator have produced conquistadors, inquisitors and crusaders?”

Keep reading for the full commentary…http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2006-06/21rigby.cfm

==================================

ZNet Commentary
Christians Who Want Democracy Must Stop Bowing to a Dictator Christ July 10, 2006
By Rev. Jim Rigby

Whereas American theology was born out of a hope for democracy, much of it is wedded to a picture of Christ as a benevolent dictator. Should we be surprised that a hierarchical cosmology would produce hierarchical churches and nations? Should we be surprised that religious nations that picture Christ as a loving dictator have produced conquistadors, inquisitors and crusaders?

What else could they produce? As the tree is, so shall be the fruit. The word “Lord” was not in the original Bible. It is an English word from feudal times. Whereas the Greek word “kurios” had a range of meanings, from a title of respect, to a title of leadership, to a name for the sacred, the English translation “Lord” refers specifically to a male European land baron. Many people have softened that interpretation in their own minds, but in times of great stress, such nuance falls away and many Christians seek a white male king. He may be called “Pope”, he may be called “the decider President,” he may be called “televangelist,” but the title only masks what he is, a benevolent (or not so benevolent) dictator.

Neither Calvin nor Luther spoke English, but they helped the Popes lay the groundwork for the view of God as a cosmic dictator. From Popes, Luther and Calvin we have some of the ugliest slurs ever recorded against women, intellectuals, and those who refused the church’s message. How did Christians hold slaves, oppress women and slaughter nonbelievers? Perhaps they could not see Christ in non-male, non-European, and non-Christian people because they were limited by their theology. Their “Christ” was merely a glorification of the most powerful member of their own culture.

To picture God in terms of power is also one of the great bait and switch gimmicks of all time. People within the power hierarchy proclaim that God is the ultimate authority, and then appoint themselves as God’s interpreters and enforcers. They are God’s humble bullies. It has been one of the most successful con games of all time.

The real Jesus was born illegitimately. He called himself “the human one.” Just like Buddha, his authority came from truth, not power. He taught whoever has love has God. He said those who work for the common good are his church.

The real Jesus was an anarchist. He spent his life refusing to claim power over anyone. He said that God is understood in terms of love not power. We add nothing to the majesty of “the human one” by adding a throne or a crown. If he did not want to rule over others in life, why should he want it in death? That is why Jesus is called “lamb of God,” he spoke not as the king of the universe, but from its heart.

If you want to know why Americans are so frightened and why we are attacking anything that would challenge our dominance over others, read the Bible. Like Cain we have murdered members of our human family. Even when we silence our victims, the ground beneath our feet cries out against us.

Today’s church lifts its arms to praise Christ wearing liturgical garments woven in sweatshops. So called “Christian America” is still a nation built on the work of slaves. We do not see them because they toil invisibly in other countries. Today’s church doles out bits of charity from booty stolen from God’s powerless people the world over. Anyone who claims to believe in a just God, or even in justice itself, has to know at some level that the prayers for liberation coming from third world countries will be heard and answered. At some level, people of faith have to know that unless America repents of the sin of empire we are a doomed nation.

Whatever prophetic voices survive in the church must take a message to the mainstream denominations. “We are guilty of our leaders’ crimes. Just because we are silent and passive does not mean that we are innocent. If we have any status in the power hierarchy, we are partially responsible for its misdeeds.”

I realize that most of the church consists of wonderful and compassionate people, but that does not matter if we turn over our power to those less charitable. The moderate mainstream church is helpless against fundamentalism because it is built on a nuanced version of the same cracked foundation of a theology of power.

Whether or not we can change America in time to avoid a political and ecological apocalypse, it is never too late to do the right thing. All of us can begin to plant seeds of a better future for our children’s children. For Christians today, that means suffering the consequences of refusing to bow to the dictator Christ of this culture.

The Rev. Jim Rigby is pastor of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX, and a longtime activist in movements concerned with gender, racial, and economic justice. This summer he is finishing a book on principles for a New Reformation. Rigby can be reached at jrigby0000@aol.com.

Natives to get more control over schools; Globe and Mail misses the (curricular) point

An editorial in today’s edition, the Globe and Mail raises concerns about the historic pact signed by B.C.’s aboriginal groups and the provinical and federal goverments, which will allow First Nations people direct control over their children’s education (covering everything from curriculum and exam to liscensing teachers).

The editorial states that “Natives need ways to be better integrated into Canadian society, not more ways to keep apart.”

The flaw in this logic is assuming that giving First Nations direct control over the education of their children will lead to social or cultural divisiveness.

It is obvious that the current arrangement—in which the federal government has control of reserve schools but apparently neglects them—is a failure that has contributed to the very lack of social and economic integration of First Nations people that the Globe and Mail laments.

The Globe and Mail‘s news coverage of the story today, by Petti Fong and Bill Curry, take the same line as the editorial, with an opening paragraph that seems aimed at inciting the idea that the new pact will lead to a denegration of the dominant culture in Canada.

Fong and Curry declare that “in new native school curriculums, John Cabot and Samuel Champlain will be minor footnotes in Canadian history, and Shakespeare a bit player in English classes.”

The content of any curriculum is not a zero-sum game. So, when Christa Williams, executive director of the First Nations Education Steering Committee, states that “The point [of new Native developed school curriculum] is to give kids material they can see themselves reflected in,” this does not automatically make the heros and events that dominate the curriculum social studies curriculum “minor footnotes.”

In fact, it illustrates a principle that should be at the core of the curriculum for all students in B.C., Canada, and everywhere else, that is, how do we create curriculum from which students can construct meaningful understandings of their world and learn how to have agency within it.

In B.C., 79 per cent of students graduate, but for students attending schools on reserves, that number drops to 43 per cent. What does this fact say about the experiences Native students are currently having in B.C. schools?

One way to think about the new accord is that things couldn’t possibly be worse, so why not?

A better approach would be think about how local control of schools and a focus on making the curriculum directly relevant to the social, cultural, historical experiences of the students might produce not only educational improvements, but actually strengthen our pluralistic society helping students to better under their place in the world and how they might take actions to transform it.

It’s that what democracy is suppose to be about?

Natives to get more control over schools—B.C. agreement could be extended to other provinces

PETTI FONG and BILL CURRY

VANCOUVER, OTTAWA — In new native school curriculums, John Cabot and Samuel Champlain will be minor footnotes in Canadian history, and Shakespeare a bit player in English classes.

After six years of negotiations, the federal and provincial governments signed a framework agreement in Vancouver yesterday to give schools on reserves more control over their curriculums.

Pupils in native schools will still have to meet provincial standards in such subjects as reading and math. But instead of learning Shakespeare, literature courses will teach the works of native playwrights such as Drew Hayden Taylor and authors like Eden Robinson.

“The point is to give kids material they can see themselves reflected in,” said Christa Williams, executive director of the First Nations Education Steering Committee.

“When we look at history books, we’re not going to see it from the perspective of the people who came to Canada as visitors, but we will blend it in with a longer, broader history.”

Ms. Williams said the whole point of revising the curriculum and other examination standards is to try a different approach to getting native students successfully through school.

The problem of high dropout rates among native youth has been an issue both federally and provincially. In B.C., 79 per cent of students graduate, but for students attending schools on reserves, that number drops to 43 per cent.

“Anything has got to be better that what we have now,” said Grand Chief Ed John of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations. “Our kids are dropping out like flies, we have to figure out a way to turn that around. What better message to have in the community than to take responsibility for your kids?”

The agreement will give parents, teachers and others in the native community the chance to provide input on what should be taught in schools on reserves and how, Mr. John said yesterday.

British Columbia is the first province to sign on to the framework agreement. About one in five of the province’s 200 native schools have already expressed their intent to negotiate individual agreements with the federal government. Once those individual agreements are done, Ottawa will transfer money directly to the native schools to run their education programs.

The federal government pays for education on reserves. Last year, it spent about $1-billion across the country and $175-million in B.C. for 16,000 students in native schools. About one-third of native students attend schools on reserves while the rest are in public schools.

Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice said he wants to take the B.C. model across the country so that eventually all native communities can opt out of education provisions of the Indian Act and create their own curriculums.

Mr. Prentice said native schools can pool their money to focus on specific needs, whether it be school supplies, teachers or psychologists.

He said the measures are consistent with what he has been promising since his days in opposition, which is to provide clear standards for native parents to judge their children’s schools.

Within six months, at least 60 native communities will take up the offer to assume authority to run their schools, the minister predicted.

Ottawa is already talking with governments in Alberta, Nova Scotia and Quebec to extend the agreement into those provinces.

Mr. Prentice played down any similarity between yesterday’s announcement and the promises to reform native education in the 2005 Kelowna agreement.

B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, who had harshly criticized the Conservative government for not committing any money for the Kelowna accord for natives, said the agreement signed yesterday reflects the “spirit” of the agreement and is an important step toward closing the gap in education between natives and non-natives.

“Our goal is to make sure young first nations kids across the province get the education they need to deal with the world they live in in a comprehensive and topical way,” he said, “and in a way that grounds them in their own culture and their own traditions so they have the sense of confidence to deal with the world they live in today.”

The agreement applies from kindergarten to Grade 12 and could be extended to include early childhood development and postsecondary education.