Washington Hebrew

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not concerned that the Hebrew school will teach religion or that it will proselitize. I'm concerned that it is using a language only attractive to a small religious minority as a pretense for a public charter school.

I don't doubt that the proposal for the Hebrew school is constitutionally sound; that doesn't mean it meets an educational need in DC.

It is against Jewish religious law to proselytize. You should learn something about Judaism before you fear it.

You should read a post carefully before commenting on it.

You might also consider that an alert person would have noticed that Jews don't proselytize - or that the person not approving of a Hebrew charter school may even be a Jew.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not concerned that the Hebrew school will teach religion or that it will proselitize. I'm concerned that it is using a language only attractive to a small religious minority as a pretense for a public charter school.

I don't doubt that the proposal for the Hebrew school is constitutionally sound; that doesn't mean it meets an educational need in DC.

It is against Jewish religious law to proselytize. You should learn something about Judaism before you fear it.

Wait, the only way you can become jewish, and feel secure that you're one of God's chosen people, is to be born into it, right? And that's a good thing?

(Sorry, but your comment is so darn off-the mark, and enough of you are out there trashing other religions anyway, that you asked for this.)

It is, as a matter of fact. It is vastly superior to conversation at the point of a sword, being burnt at the stake, or being bombed in a cafe in Tel Aviv, but at least you're a baby so your death is collateral damage and you'll be accepted into Heaven.

I'll take Jewish lack of proselytization any day of the week, thank you very much.

Oh, and I'm not Jewish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You know, the charter law and implementing regs don't contain any language that, in order for a new school to be approved, it needs to either 1. be universally appealing to all DC families or 2. it MAY appeal to a niche group, BUT that group needs to be historically underserved, poor, and probably in Wards 6, 7 or 8.

Well, maybe they should. Charter schools claim to be the solution for the terrible education offered by the public schools. The students most damaged (and most prevalent) in these awful public schools are the historically underserved and poor. Therefore, in DC, the schools that are granted charters SHOULD serve the local population and its particular needs.

I'm Jewish, and a fluent Modern Hebrew speaker. My language education was in a secular setting with little or no mention of Judaism, and included students who were fluent in Arabic and from a wide variety of backgrounds. I understand how this school could work without being religious. That said, I'm opposed to this school's charter. As other posters have pointed out, the community of Hebrew speakers is very small and there is not an educational need in DC for this school, beyond a very small subset of people, many who have alternate means of language education.

The charter system should not be manipulated by small niche groups seeking to use public funds to further segregate the community. Charter schools should respond to the educational needs of as many of DC's children as possible to truly meet their mission.

There isn't a thriving community of Latin or Mandarin speakers here either. Washington Latin and Washington Yu Ying appeal to disproportionately wealthy and white families. And yet, they are thriving and successful schools, not even 5 years old. Why not Hebrew? Why not as many exciting options as possible? If you think the PCSB is going to automatically shoot down this idea, then you don't understand its function.

[Anonymous]

Latin schools (and there are many throughout the world) don't teach spoken Latin and don't strive for fluency. Latin is a dead language and has been for centuries - unless you work at the Vatican. Latin schools represent an approach to education through the classics.

Mandarin (and Spanish and other widely spoken languages) are and presumably will be useful in social interaction and commerce.

[Anonymous]

Besides Latin provides additional language opportunities including French, Chinese and Arabic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It is, as a matter of fact. It is vastly superior to conversation at the point of a sword, being burnt at the stake, or being bombed in a cafe in Tel Aviv, but at least you're a baby so your death is collateral damage and you'll be accepted into Heaven.

I'll take Jewish lack of proselytization any day of the week, thank you very much.

Oh, and I'm not Jewish.

A person is superior to everybody else -- one of God's chosen people -- only because of birth. Everybody else is doomed and has no possibility of becoming chosen, because it's already too late for everybody else.

The flaw in your tirade above is that you don't even mention choice in religion. Which is everything, in my book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

There are several PPs on here who keep saying that it's NOT OK for this proposed Wash. Hebrew to appeal to a limited subset of DC residents (affluent people! smart people!) .... but it is most certainly OK that other charters appeal to a limited subset of DC residents since, you know, they're downtrodden.

I have to be frank: you have the brain of a flea, and that's totally separate from however smart you think the school's students will be. You actually posted, for everybody to see, that in your view this school should cater to the rich and smart.

My kid went to Latin for a few years, and I can tell you from experience that hostility towards "elitist" charters is alive and well. The concerns range from "NW families don't need another great option" to "charters in general subtract the rich kids, and a Latin school would subtract rich kids more than you average charter." As others (not me) have pointed out, Latin succeeds because it has a broad mandate that isn't linked to a particular religion, it follows a curriculum that has a fairly wide historical appeal, and because most of the kids are minority so far.

Somebody from this school needs to get in touch with you and tell you to shut your trap, before you do even more damage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It is, as a matter of fact. It is vastly superior to conversation at the point of a sword, being burnt at the stake, or being bombed in a cafe in Tel Aviv, but at least you're a baby so your death is collateral damage and you'll be accepted into Heaven.

I'll take Jewish lack of proselytization any day of the week, thank you very much.

Oh, and I'm not Jewish.

A person is superior to everybody else -- one of God's chosen people -- only because of birth. Everybody else is doomed and has no possibility of becoming chosen, because it's already too late for everybody else.

The flaw in your tirade above is that you don't even mention choice in religion. Which is everything, in my book.

Well, freedom to choose your religion, yes. But equally important is that you don't set your religion, and your coreligionists, above anybody else's religion (or lack thereof). That's how wars start. All religions are guilty of the latter, in my book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You know, the charter law and implementing regs don't contain any language that, in order for a new school to be approved, it needs to either 1. be universally appealing to all DC families or 2. it MAY appeal to a niche group, BUT that group needs to be historically underserved, poor, and probably in Wards 6, 7 or 8.

Well, maybe they should. Charter schools claim to be the solution for the terrible education offered by the public schools. The students most damaged (and most prevalent) in these awful public schools are the historically underserved and poor. Therefore, in DC, the schools that are granted charters SHOULD serve the local population and its particular needs.

I'm Jewish, and a fluent Modern Hebrew speaker. My language education was in a secular setting with little or no mention of Judaism, and included students who were fluent in Arabic and from a wide variety of backgrounds. I understand how this school could work without being religious. That said, I'm opposed to this school's charter. As other posters have pointed out, the community of Hebrew speakers is very small and there is not an educational need in DC for this school, beyond a very small subset of people, many who have alternate means of language education.

The charter system should not be manipulated by small niche groups seeking to use public funds to further segregate the community. Charter schools should respond to the educational needs of as many of DC's children as possible to truly meet their mission.

ITA. Good post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm 21:50 and I am not a wash. Hebrew booster. My kid is
in private and won't attend tHis charter or any charter for that matter.

But, because of the nature of my job i move about some charters and some Dcps. I've also lived here forever and have a handle on political "reality" here. One thing to remember is that it's trending away from the "reality" that was possible when DC was majority AA. As the District gets richer and less black with each passing year, these sorts of airy "oh that'll never work" smug Barry-leftover assumptions will die out.

How do you reconcile this to the continued ban, in DC, on anything that resembles a magnet?

I think we can all get on board with a statement that almost anything can happen in 20 years, iff current demographic trends continue, etc., etc.... But it looks like this school's supporters want to bring it up for approval this year, and I don't think the political environment is ready today.

[Anonymous]

Judaism prohibits proselyzation but not conversion. So if you feel left out, there's an option to get in. There's also a wide spectrum of opinion regarding what it means to be "chosen," including the idea that Jews' special relationship with G-d blesses the entire world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Judaism prohibits proselyzation but not conversion. So if you feel left out, there's an option to get in. There's also a wide spectrum of opinion regarding what it means to be "chosen," including the idea that Jews' special relationship with G-d blesses the entire world.

There's a wide diversity of thought in Christianity and Islam, too, about how to treat the "other" and whether to allow conversion in or out of the religion. What seems unfair is that you criticize other religions for what they did in the 16th century, but you adopt only the most liberal interpretations of your own faith. Hypocrites exist in every faith, apparently.

This is obviously a weird diversion from the thread topic. Stop slamming other peoples' religions, and we won't respond to your biased insults. Does this sound fair to you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Judaism prohibits proselyzation but not conversion. So if you feel left out, there's an option to get in. There's also a wide spectrum of opinion regarding what it means to be "chosen," including the idea that Jews' special relationship with G-d blesses the entire world.

Personally, I'm not seeking blessings from any god, but if I were, I doubt I'd be heartened to know I could get them second hand through another religion's special relationship with my deity.

[Anonymous]

Look folks, there's poster who always pops up on judaism threads, who has an IQ of about 5 and goes on about catholic whorehouses. I'm going to take a leap and guess she's already on this thread, because there's a poster here making oddly incoherent arguments, this time about how the Hebrew charter should embrace rich, entitled kids.

She needs to be distinguished, sharply, from the thoughtful jewish posters on this thread. 11:20 may not be her. In a better world, we could all chip in and get the crazy person some much-needed classes on anger-management and critical thinking. But for the present, what say we all ignore her jabs at other religions, and get on with the thread topic?

[Anonymous]

DCPS only spends money if your kid needs help passing NCLB. Presumably, most of the kids at a Hebrew charter would be able to pass NCLB with flying colors. As others have said, there's an argument for spending money to keep middle class kids in the DCPS system, but DCPS probably figures it already has that covered, if inadequately, with JLKM, Latin, Banneker, Walls, and that ilk.

So as an exercise, in preparation for the charter application, can somebody explain why:
(1) DCPS should allocate money to kids who will already pass NCLB with flying colors, and
(2) how taking these kids out of other NW schools would not increase the risk these other schools will fail to make AYP the following year?