At This Special Chicago Elementary School for Blacks, ‘A’ Is for Africa : Education: Self-esteem and cultural pride are stressed along with the basics. Many graduates stay in school and go on to college.

Inside a bleak storefront on Chicago’s South Side, the children recite a different pledge of allegiance:

“We are African people, struggling for national liberation. We are preparing leaders and workers to bring about positive change for our people. We stress the development of our bodies, minds, souls and consciousness.”

The flag they face is not red, white and blue. It is the black, green and red banner of African nationalism. The walls are decorated with portraits of Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey.

Sandwiched between an auto-parts shop and a bookstore, the New Concept Development Center barely stands out in dreary surroundings. There is no hint that the teaching methods at this small, private school are a subject of nationwide debate.

The center offers an Afrocentric curriculum. Every subject taught--including English, math, science, history and the arts--is infused with African themes.

Critics say it is self-esteem therapy more than serious academic study. They complain that much of what is taught as fact is fantasy, and some say it presents a perspective as biased as any Eurocentric curriculum.

Others, such as Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch, fear that such a curriculum could aggravate “racial antagonism” and produce “fresh recruits for white and black racist groups.”

Supporters of the concept say it gives black students a positive image of their ancestry that can help them avoid the drugs, crime and poor performance that trouble many inner-city public schools. They say it teaches black children to view their heritage as equal, not inferior, to European culture.

“We’re faced with a situation of continuing to send out children that are failing or providing alternative means of educating our children ourselves,” said Mwalimu J. Shujaa, executive officer of the Council of Independent Black Institutions, the Buffalo, N.Y.-based group of 30 schools that includes New Concept.

“That seems to pose a threat for many because it’s interpreted as being anti-public education. It’s really pro-African-American children,” he said.

The council is helping Detroit’s schools fashion an Afrocentric program, and other cities have asked for the council’s curriculum guide, Shujaa said.

“The independent school movement was actually out front and created the curriculums . . . public schools are now trying to mirror,” said Conrad Worrill, a Northeastern Illinois University history professor.

At New Concept, children learn French--spoken in much of Africa--and some Swahili. Primers feature characters named Akwasi and Kali, not Dick and Jane.

In teaching phonics, “instead of saying, ‘Sally and Susie went to the park,’ we say, ‘Egypt is the land of our African ancestors,’ ” said Shalewa Crowe, the school’s 38-year-old director.

New Concept students learning the alphabet are taught that A is for Africa as well as for apple, she said. History lessons stress that Columbus did not “discover” America.

“We let them know there were native people here, and Europeans came over looking for another place to live,” Crowe said.

Reading lessons include a chapter from a book titled “They Came Before Columbus” by Ivan Van Sertima, which tells of a voyage to the Americas by the West African prince Abubakari before Columbus’ trip, said Folami Stallings, a New Concept third-grade teacher and assistant director of the school.

She said math instruction for third-graders includes a lesson that the obelisk, a structure exemplified by the Washington Monument, was invented by Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt.

Stallings said children at New Concept learn the names and achievements of black scientists, inventors and musicians. In introductory music classes, they play blues and jazz tunes on their recorder-flutes.

The school’s 85 students and six teachers--all of whom are black--gather each day for opening exercises. The children form a circle, clasp hands and sing, “We are a beautiful nation.”

New Concept starts at the preschool level, with children as young as 2 1/2, and runs through third grade. The children are taught at an accelerated rate.

“We work on children a year ahead--kindergartners work at first-grade level and start a formal reading program and math,” Crowe said.

“We start science with our 3-year-olds. Last year, they talked about carbohydrates,” she said.

The Afrocentric approach “is something I could have benefited from,” said Zandra Stewart, 36, whose 3-year-old son, Chase, attends New Concept. The Chicago woman attended mostly white Catholic schools.

“I wasn’t learning anything about myself,” she said. “I didn’t learn about black leaders until eighth grade.”

She said her son and his classmates already have started “knowing who they are, that they’re black children and they should be proud of it, that being black shouldn’t hold them back.”

Parents are required to participate in school activities and many help to raise funds for the school, founded in 1972 as a Saturday tutorial program for public school pupils. Full-time classes began in 1974, and school officials now are purchasing a larger building so they can expand through the eighth grade.

The school operates on an annual budget of about $300,000 and gets no public funds, Crowe said.

Tuition ranges from $2,400 to $2,650 a year. Many pupils from low-income families receive scholarships awarded through fund-raising efforts.

Though there is no formal record of how New Concept graduates fare in later studies, officials say that most, if not all, of the school’s 200 graduates have been able to avoid the problems that are common in many Chicago public schools--dropping out, early pregnancy, drug abuse and involvement with gangs.

More than three-quarters of black students in the city’s public high schools performed below the national average on reading and math achievement tests last year, far behind their white peers.

Many New Concept graduates, however, have entered one of the city’s public “magnet” schools for achievers and performed at levels a grade or two above their peers, Crowe said.

Still, entering a mainstream school can be a challenge to a New Concept graduate because he or she may encounter skeptical classmates and teachers.

Tawa Carruthers, 17, who attended a public school after graduation from New Concept in 1982, remembers that the other kids called her a “little African princess.”

Her new classmates also taunted her when she said Columbus didn’t discover America: “Kids would just be, like, ‘Why is it Columbus Day?’ I would respond, ‘Well, I was taught this; are you a teacher? No, well then how do you know?’ ”

Carruthers said the teachers at her “progressive” public school were more accepting of her previous education. She recently was graduated in the top 10% of her class at Kenwood Academy, a South Side public school for achievers, and plans to start college.

Jaribu Kitwana said her sons, Jelani, Kobie and Ajamu--all New Concept graduates--are testaments to the school’s value.

At 16, Jelani was graduated in June from Kenwood. He has a scholarship to Morehouse College in Atlanta. The younger boys, ages 13 and 12, are in programs for gifted students in other public schools, Kitwana said.

Her boys, like many New Concept students, all have African names. Jelani said that his public school classmates at first made fun of his name.

He also noticed that public school teachers focused on “just basic reading and math; they didn’t seem interested in African heritage.”

But, he said, he adapted quickly.

“He’s a very wonderful young man, very focused, always kind and considerate,” said Joyce Brown, Jelani’s guidance counselor at Kenwood. “The myth of the black male (not) being smart was never an issue with him at all.”

There is no proof that New Concept is the largest factor in its students’ success. The children’s parents certainly deserve some credit, and it must be noted that those who can afford the tuition are better off financially than many other blacks.

Crowe said she is sure that the school accomplishes great things.