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| More on that N.Y.C. Arabic school |
| 2007-06-01 |
| In September, New York City will open the nation's first public school dedicated to teaching Arabic and Arab culture. Named after the Christian Arab poet Khalil Gibran, it's one of 65 specialty dual-language schools in New York. But it's the only one that has sparked a public controversy. Some conservative critics have warned it could breed home-grown extremists. Others have attacked it for balkanizing public education, which has historically played a primary role in helping the nation's many immigrants assimilate. Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes wrote that "Arabic-language instruction is inevitably laden with pan-Arabist and Islamist baggage." He pointed to a column in the Middle East Quarterly about Middlebury College's prestigious language schools. It contended that the Arab language curriculum there "indoctrinated [students] with a tendentious Arab nationalist reading of Middle Eastern history." Jeff Wiesenfeld, trustee of the City University of New York, said "Other ethnic schools have never been infused with this ethnic triumphalism which you have in many of the Islamic academies that are known around the world as madrassahs. We recognize that most Muslim people are as law-abiding as anyone else and abhor terrorism, but most terrorists today, as they are defined today, are Muslims." Supporters deny both claims and say the academy is designed to educate world citizens and bridge Eastern and Western cultures, something sorely needed in today's increasingly global world. Mr. Ibrahim of the Arab American Institute hopes the school will not only help train Arabic speakers, but also help dispel the myths that he contends feed fear in the nation. He likes to point out that madrassah is the Arabic word for school and that the majority of Arabs in the US, like Khalil Gibran, are Christians. At the same time, US intelligence and law-enforcement agencies desperately need qualified Arab speakers to navigate the changed world. There are more than 60 other dual-language schools in New York, notes Joel Klein, New York schools chancellor. Most are for Spanish, but others focus on cultures as diverse as Creole, Chinese, and Russian. At the same time as they teach language and culture, they also prepare students to pass the rigorous New York State Regents Examinations. He has promised that the school's curriculum would be monitored. That assuaged Mr. Wiesenfeld's concerns. The Department of Education also moved the school to another location with more space. The Education Department continues to stand by the school, which is slated to start with 60 sixth-grade students from diverse backgrounds. Applications are still being processed. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #4 and that the majority of Arabs in the US, like Khalil Gibran, are Christians I'd like to see some data that support that statement. Most US Arabs are Christians? I've been in a thousands of schools throughout the USA, from the ghettos of any large city, to the French speaking bayous of LA, to the Indian reservations, to one and two room schools in WVa, and yes, to that one "famous" Saudi school just out of Washington DC, that hit the news that senior students were supporting terrorists. And let me tell you this, that visit to that Saudi school, on the same location grid as Mt. Vernon, was a goose bump feeling.... one that happened long before 911... and, one, I won't ever forget. At that point in my professional career, I could walk into a school, and within 5 minutes, give you a complete summation of the administration, the teachers and the students. Schools have feelings. This Arab school outside of DC? Out of my league. With my incessant questioning (cause I didn't know no better, it was 8-9 years ago) I was finally told, that this was the school that was supported by the Saudi government, and this was where the Washington Saudi's sent their kids. They wanted to adhere to the Saudi culture, and that was the purpose of the school. I couldn't get any direction from the administrator I was meeting with, as to what it was, they wanted to achieve, that brought me there for that visit. Really strange. The building was in a V shape.... girls to the right, boys to the left.... okay.... I could handle that.... but when we got down to the curriculum, of what I could do for them.... well.... It was a strange experience, and the administrator I met with had set up the appointment..... Having been in schools and meeting administrations, teachers and students in most of the 50 states.... well.... when I got back in the car.... I was shaking..... there was nothing "normal" about the feeling in that school. Hey, I've been in the worse inner city ghettos we got..... including Watts, LA... after the riots... Detroit... the list goes on and on. This one in NY... can't be much different from the DC one. The DC one has made the news about its students..... this one? I still draw my shoulders up around my head, in a coward position, cause I so still remember that visit. That visit had to do with teaching their teachers how to teach their curriculum using the Internet! |
| Posted by: Sherry 2007-06-01 23:03 |
| #3 What are you talking about? If I lived in NYC and was a kid, I would want to go there. Three years of arabic and an understanding of the culture could get you in a position to make good money. Think of it as a trade school for future military types. |
| Posted by: Penguin 2007-06-01 19:30 |
| #2 It's going to be a den of vipers, everyone knows good and goddamned well what they will be teaching there. Maybe not when the state examiners are there, but bet your boots they'll get around to it soon enough. |
| Posted by: Glatle Untervehr9447 2007-06-01 18:39 |
| #1 The Department of Education also moved the school to another location with more space. Like where? The hole at Ground Zero? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-06-01 15:48 |