Letter: Close test score gap with cultural links Thursday, September 21, 2006 In her September 14 opinion piece, Cambridge School Committee member Nancy Walser asked for suggestions for the achievement gap forum. For over a decade I have urged church officials and educators to dialogue for the benefit of immigrant and black children’s education. I firmly believe this can be done without violating the First Amendment’s principle of separation of church and state, and that Cambridge could be a leader in a healthy interaction between the public sphere and communities of faith.

Historically the Catholic church helped Irish, Polish, German, Franco-Canadian and other European immigrants assimilate into the larger culture. The black church had always exercised great influence in the black community. As a black immigrant educator, I would appeal to city, state, and school officials to consider the idea of working constructively with black and immigrant churches for the same purpose.

I would like to propose a Community Education and Cultural Center where the arts, technology and the expectations of mainline American culture could be taught to children and their parents. An educational environment could be created so that communities would take advantage of the cultural treasures available to us here, such as museums, national and international musical performances, and libraries. The churches could be partners in implementing this vision on the level where their interests and those of the community coincide: enriching the lives of their children.

Moreover, except for the Ethiopians, there are no social service agencies providing for Cambridge’s black communities. African-Americans, Haitians and other West Indians, and growing numbers of African immigrants don’t have a physical center of reference.

Many immigrant parents come from politically oppressive societies where being involved and asking questions to authorities, even those in the schools, could be considered a crime. A cooperative learning center supported by the city and its churches could help overcome these obstacles. I urge the city of Cambridge to call upon the churches to help make this happen. If the learning momentum originates in the community and continues to be an integral part of some ethnic milieus as it was in previous immigrant settings, the achievement gap cited by Nancy Walser would gradually close.

NEKITA LAMOUR

Graduate of Cambridge High and Latin and longtime educator in Cambridge