Black citizens have always been innovative in the ways we educate our children.
This may not be by ideal standards, but we find a way to provide the best for our children.
The Community Academy for Architecture and Design (TCAAD) is doing just that for Black boys.
School choice has always been the Black choice!
The first TCAAD school will be in Stone Mountain, Georgia where the population is 76% African-American, this is a big deal!
TCAAD’s focus is on developing the next generation of Critical Design-Thinkers and problem-solvers, while using Architecture and Design to maintain relevance in a community-centered project-based learning curricula.
Black boys do well with hands on learning. Especially when there’s a Black male teacher in front of the classroom.
TCAAD serves boys and girls alike.
However, the school leaders see the condition that society renders the young Black boys of our community into.
Black men are providing Black boys a choice.
The founders of TCAAD are making history by giving Black parents a different school choice centered around architecture.
They decided to focus on positive intergenerational transformation and providing our children with better educational outcomes.
TCAAD is providing a solution that works through their curriculum.
This is how you maintain and enhance a community.
The curriculum of TCAAD provides a mindsets which teaches all of our students that though they may be born into certain conditions, they themselves have the ability to design their own futures.
This is evident in the TCAAD curriculum developed by the Tarchitects Foundation for Architecture and Design which TCAAD licensed.
The curriculum uses Architecture, Engineering, and Creative Media Makerspace-like Design Studios, of which the students use to engage problems identified in their community and seek to solve them.
It provides lessons in all subject areas.
The TCAAD curriculum also allows Black boys to see the relevance in what they are doing in class, how that relates to their own leadership and utilizing problem solving skills when applied directly to their neighbors.
Jason has worked in education for over 15 years as a teacher, blogger and community advocate. He speaks and writes primarily about the need to improve education for Black boys, particularly increasing the number of Black male educators in schools. In addition to blogging here at EdLanta, Jason is also a featured writer at Education Post.