The language of the future
Old Trooper sends us a link to an article from Dallas/Fort Worth’s ABC station announcing that a school in Mansfield, Texas is requiring students to learn Arabic;
As part of the five-year $1.3 million grant, Arabic classes would be mandatory at Cross Timbers Intermediate School and Kenneth Davis Elementary School. The program would also be optional for students at T. A. Howard Middle School and Summit High School.
Parents at Cross Timbers say they were caught off-guard by the program, and were surprised the district only told them about it in a meeting Monday night between parents and Mansfield ISD Superintendent Bob Morrison.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with students learning another language. When I learned Spanish and German, I learned how to use my own English more effectively. But to make it mandatory? In elementary school?
But what’s really laughable is that the Department of Education calls Arabic “a language of the future”. WTF? If your future includes a stint as a goat roper in Yemen, maybe, but not as a language of commerce, diplomacy or even literature. At least not to the extent that it’s mandatory in elementary school. An elective language maybe…not forced down students’ throats. Especially in Texas.
And they’re going include Arabic culture without making it about religion? That’s impossible. Arabic culture is called Islam. Every bit of their culture and laws come from the Koran. I don’t know how it’s even possible to separate the two.
This is the height of dhimmitude. The US Department of Education has surrendered to politically correct pressure and it demonstrates perfectly why there should be no Department of Education.
Category: Liberals suck, Schools
“This is the height of dhimmitude. The US Department of Education has surrendered to politically correct pressure and it demonstrates perfectly why there should be no Department of Education”. I certainly can’t argue with that, at all. It’s amazing how many people who ought to know better, like educators either don’t know about, or ignore the strings that the Feds attach to “free” money.
Can’t wait for Joey to show up and tells us knuckle-draggers how Arabic is the pathway to peace and unicorns for all of us.
Imagine if they had made Russian language mandatory back in the 70’s and 80’s because it was going to be the “language of the future.”
While I would have no problem at all for making foreign language classes required at the elementary school level, there should be a variety of classes to choose from. Making one particular language mandatory over all others is just plain wrong. And the reason why I would support required foreign language at a younger age is that it would be easier to learn at that age than waiting until high school when so many students today struggle with plain English.
Arabic would only be useful if you plan on being a translator or a community organizer for a career.
Or unless you need humint on the ground, something we’ve lagged on…..
Yeah, Joe, I’m sure you’re worried about our intelligence-gathering efforts in the Middle East. I’m sure that if the school said upfront that they were teaching Arabic to elementary school kids so the kids could get jobs at the CIA or the Army, there’d be a general uprising among you and your ilk. And how does the “cultural” aspect of this square with your irrational fear of Christianity?
Why not Chinese, if they’re looking for a language of the future? And it’s Texas, how about making Spanish or Vietnamese mandatory?
Being a polyglot, I’m all for my children having diversity of language, but I teach them Russian, Vietnamese, Gaidhlig, and Spanish on my own. To say that this is about language alone is, I believe, grossly fabricated and misleading.
As for this, “Kheirieh Hannun was born in the Middle East but raised in the U.S. She believes giving students the option to learn Arabic will give her son and others like him the option to learn more about their culture,” whose responsibility is that? I’m damn sure not going toextend to school systems that teach and preach about Columbus the authority to inculcate my prodigy with falsehoods concerning our indigenous heritage.
We really have become a submissive and ignorant society.
Based on my wife’s stories about tutoring college freshmen the money would be much better spent on better HS English teachers.
Based on my wife’s stories about tutoring college freshmen the money would be much better spent on better HS English teachers.
From my sister’s stories about tutoring college freshmen the money could also be spent on better math teachers.
Stories about 18 year olds who don’t know what a verb is, or who can’t subtract without a calculator are only funny the first time.
That’s what I thought, Spade. It looks like public school teachers are bound and determined to avoid teaching anything useful.
No idea what the hell happened there.:-/
Jonn,
I have a RATIONAL fear of all of them – Scientology, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Spaghetti Monsterism. Unfortunately, they aren’t gonna disappear overnight. Some are growing and mutating daily. But yeah, you’re right, I have a hard time forming an opinion of which archaic, fantiastic, superstitious, irrational philosophy is superior to which other archaic, fantiastic, superstitious, irrational philosophy.
English is the Lingua Franca. It was Greek, then Latin, then French and now English. Teach our children English, and make all other languages elective, and NOT a requirement for graduation.
The business market will determine which languages are important to learn.
If, however, schools are bound and determined to enforce another language, then it should be Latin. Latin is the root of French, Spanish and Italian. It is also the language of science, archeology, anthropology, etc.
But I’m not worried about my kids being corrupted like those poor kids in Mansfield. I homeschool my daughter. Until something gets done about the public school system, I will continue to homeschool her.
V/R
My dad learned Russian. My kids learned Mandarin. I learned Leftist Progressive. One should always learn the language of their greatest enemies.
I certainly think languages should be taught in school, if for no other reason than that it gives our children another opportunity for employment and learning. Having said that, however…I would think it very imprudent to expose children, particularly young children, to any language that could be a natural bridge to a virulent ideology, be it political or religious.
When I heard this, I nearly ran off the road. Are you effing kidding me? Perhaps I should post some of the essays I have proofed, from the last few years? Geesus H.!!! Arabic in an English speaking country? That is a seriously WTF moment, indeed.
Yeah this is silly. Why teach kids Arabic? We already have a hard time teaching kids math, science, history and english. When will we ever use Arabic in America? Teaching Spanish makes sense because a high amount of our population speaks Spanish. This is nonsense. Just another way to waste precious time in school trying to teach kids how to read and write. Isn’t our education system bad already? Why add more to it?
On the other hand, maybe they’ve read this:
http://www.amazon.com/Caliphate-Tom-Kratman/dp/1439133425/
Well, RandyB, there’s another book to add to my reading list!
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In reading the review, the reviewer mentions “peace at any price.” I haven’t heard that phrase in quite awhile. Isn’t it interesting that Europe is acting exactly the same way they did when Hitler was escalating? I wonder if they realize that history is repeating itself, right in their midst?
And I wonder if it will take another World War to stop it?
Or unless you need humint on the ground, something we’ve lagged on…
No thanks to your beloved Jimmuh the Peanut and his evisceration of the CIA back in the 1970’s, the Church Commission, etc, etc…and in the 90’s it was the Toricelli Amendment…you get the idea.
I am all for kids needing to take a foreign language class as a requirement of graduation. But I am not sure I like the idea of Arabic being a requirement. What ever happened to having a choice of French, Spanish, Latin, German,…..or Arabic?? We HAVE to pay taxes that go towards the public school system, but we have no choice when it comes to what the public school systems require and it pisses me off. We got rid of P.E. classes and have an obesity problem and we have a disturbingly low standard for teaching English and Math. Like Spade said, I had an English professor who once told me she couldn’t believe some of the so-called “essays” that were turned in by previous students. She even had our class read some of them as examples of what NOT to write, and it was scary to me that these college students couldn’t even put together a coherent essay. But yeah, I guess I could see why the public school system doesn’t see all of this as a problem.
Uh-oh, Jax agrees with us on something. Next thing you know Joe will be telling us that he doesn’t wake up screaming from nightmares of the Pope wearing a bomb vest.
Every once in a while a miracle DOES happen, Jonn!
Poor Joe…he is SO misunderstood…
Wow, we’re pushing Arabic on five-year-olds now? And yet leftists come crawling out of the woodwork to scream “RACIST!” whenever someone brings up the idea of establishing English as the national language.
Someone find Rod Sterling so I can ask him when I stepped into the Twilight Zone.
No problem with our kids learning Arabic…as long as it is offered as a CHOICE among others like: Spanish, French, German, Mandarin, Japanese…you get the picture.
But to make IT and only IT mandatory?
Major decision FAIL on the part of that (or any other) school district.
Yeah, let the kids choose the foreign language of their choice. Just to tack in a different direction, all the posts here seem to be saying Arabic = Terrorism, or some variation thereof. But don’t forget, there are an estimated 400-500 million (rough estimate) Arabic speakers in the world, a very small fraction of which are terrorists. Each and every one is a potential customer for American goods. One way to approach it it to turn the whole controversy on its head in a very American way – embrace Arabic speakers, and sell them something! Speaking the language would help.
“All the posts here”…just where in my post do I imply that speaking or the study of Arabic equates with terrorism, Joe?
The real discriminator here is that Arabic (and Mandarin, for that matter), other Asian languages and Slavic languages are difficult to learn to speak, read and write.
Unless someone is willing to make the study a full time job (as in the Defense Language Institute) or some private language immersion program, the chances of Little Johnnie coming out of elementary school (or HS for that matter) with a decent level of fluency…something well beyond conversational pleasantries…is somewhere between slim and none.
But if you are serious about a “market approach”, I would suggest that there are a Hell of a lot more Mandarin speakers in the world than Arabic…leverage your talent for languages in that direction…and Arabic as well.
And don’t forget our own hemisphere…Spanish and Portuguese…plenty of market potential there.
Joe, your point is a good one; I think the complaint here is that Arabic is being made mandatory, and at the elementary school level. Not so much that it’s Arabic that is being offered.
Spigot: I, for one, have to raise my hand to your question about implying terrorism. #14 post. I referred to a “virulent ideology.”
“The chances of Little Johnnie coming out of elementary school (or HS for that matter) with a decent level of fluency…something well beyond conversational pleasantries…is somewhere between slim and none”. And that applies to what should be Little Johnnie’s first language, more so than foreign languages. I knew Joey would show up and try to bend this into a wonderful idea, on getting along.
Somebody, cue the unicorns.
Joe, seriously, you have no problem with the DoE mandating Arabic in an elementary curriculum? Let me rephrase, you have no problem with the DoE mandating anything in a local school district?
>Joe, seriously, you have no problem with the DoE mandating Arabic in an elementary curriculum? Let me rephrase, you have no problem with the DoE mandating anything in a local school district
No, apparently he has more “fear” of us religionists than “mandatory” teaching of our government. Boo Joe!
Joe: But don’t forget, there are an estimated 400-500 million (rough estimate) Arabic speakers in the world, a very small fraction of which are terrorists. Each and every one is a potential customer for American goods. One way to approach it it to turn the whole controversy on its head in a very American way – embrace Arabic speakers, and sell them something! Speaking the language would help. ========== Instead of teaching Americans Arabic, I think a much better solution to the problem of Islam and Muslims is to teach Muslim/Arab/etc children English. Along with Gary Sinise’s Operation Iraqi Children program to improve their schools, how about mandating Iraq and Afghanistan schools start teaching “English as a Second Language” to their children. American children have all the opportunities in the world. Muslim/Arab children, however, have extremely limited opportunities. However, you teach them to speak English and their opportunities increase dramatically. Not only do their opportunities for travel to English-speaking Western nations open up — as well as job opportunities with these nations — but they also will be able to read and hear English-speaking media. This will open up a whole new world to them, a whole new reality other than the totalitarian world in which they find themselves trapped in the Middle East, being indoctrinated and brainwashed with lies about Western society. I do actually see some good in teaching Arabic to Americans and their children. Because then they will be able to understand the evil and vitriol and hatred that Muslims and Arabs teach to their citizens, specifically their children, as reported for years by MEMRI. No longer would Democrats and liberals and the MF-ing media be able to get away with saying that Muslims and Arabs are just peaceful and misunderstood and get away with calling them “moderates”. Americans and their children could just go to the source of the vile and hear their own words, instead of the lies of the Left. So, as usual, Joe has it exactly backwards. He is basically saying that in order to help out the Black Community, we need to… Read more »
I’m all for learning a second or third language, and the earlier the better. However, 1) given the terrible state of English instruction in most public schools and 2) the differences between Arabic and Indo-European languages, this is a waste of time and money. If you have to add a second language, start (in Texas at least) with Spanish, then offer Spanish or Latin in Jr. High, then options for French, German, Arabic, Mandarin or KSwahilli for that matter. Otherwise, use the money to buy off the worst of the teachers and administrators and go back to trying to teach kids the three Rs.
[looks around, bows, gets off soap box}
The reason why I would support required foreign language at a younger age is that it would be easier to learn at that age than waiting until high school when so many students today struggle with plain English.