Sela Public Charter School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very happy to have Sela as an option for my non-Jewish baby, the children on Benning Road, and the rest of DC children. Excited to have great languages like Hebrew and Mandarin to pick from for our already Spanish bilingual child! What a world we live in!

if your child was speeking English only, I wonder if you would really pick Hebrew for his full immersion school.

also, I wonder which languages are not great IYO

Well, honestly, if my child didn't "speek" [sic] Spanish - I'm not sure I would put them in a Spanish immersion school, since (biased here) I think Spanish is a pretty easy language to pick up as an adult and there are so many opportunities to learn Spanish in this area. I happen to think Hebrew is a great language and am excited for my DC to learn it - I never had an opportunity for bilingual education, at her age any way. Of course, I try to be a non-judgmental person (and I think it's pretty ugly, actually, to assign negative values to world languages as if there are "better" languages than other (witness the Mandarin -Cantonese cat fighting on the other threads) - it smacks of something pretty dark in our humanity to devalue cultures/civilizations/races/people, etc.) and I think it's important to teach my children to be global citizens and appreciate differences and new opportunities for language learning...but I guess haters will keep hating

Nothing against SELA but it is not a useful language to learn, you can only truly become fluent in a language if you immerse yourself in it and have lots of opportunity to practice. 5 years of French and 1 year of German wasted, knowing a few phrases here and there does not make one bilingual. However, to those who choose this school for their children - Good Luck and I wish you and the school well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very happy to have Sela as an option for my non-Jewish baby, the children on Benning Road, and the rest of DC children. Excited to have great languages like Hebrew and Mandarin to pick from for our already Spanish bilingual child! What a world we live in!

if your child was speeking English only, I wonder if you would really pick Hebrew for his full immersion school.

also, I wonder which languages are not great IYO

Well, honestly, if my child didn't "speek" [sic] Spanish - I'm not sure I would put them in a Spanish immersion school, since (biased here) I think Spanish is a pretty easy language to pick up as an adult and there are so many opportunities to learn Spanish in this area. I happen to think Hebrew is a great language and am excited for my DC to learn it - I never had an opportunity for bilingual education, at her age any way. Of course, I try to be a non-judgmental person (and I think it's pretty ugly, actually, to assign negative values to world languages as if there are "better" languages than other (witness the Mandarin -Cantonese cat fighting on the other threads) - it smacks of something pretty dark in our humanity to devalue cultures/civilizations/races/people, etc.) and I think it's important to teach my children to be global citizens and appreciate differences and new opportunities for language learning...but I guess haters will keep hating

Nothing against SELA but it is not a useful language to learn, you can only truly become fluent in a language if you immerse yourself in it and have lots of opportunity to practice. 5 years of French and 1 year of German wasted, knowing a few phrases here and there does not make one bilingual. However, to those who choose this school for their children - Good Luck and I wish you and the school well.

Good summary. If the previous PP wants to delude herself, there's really little we can do to help her or her kid, but to say Good luck!

[Anonymous]

So happy Sela is providing another language option for DC. Like the previous commenter, I'm an adult with a tin ear for languages, if only bilingual education had been emphasized when I was growing up. That said, just because you don't have a knack for languages doesn't mean your time was "wasted." Language education should also broaden perspectives and give you tools to tackle things outside your comfort zone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So happy Sela is providing another language option for DC. Like the previous commenter, I'm an adult with a tin ear for languages, if only bilingual education had been emphasized when I was growing up. That said, just because you don't have a knack for languages doesn't mean your time was "wasted." Language education should also broaden perspectives and give you tools to tackle things outside your comfort zone.

Amen! These folks just vacillate between bashing YY, accusing LAMB of cheating, and attacking SELA. It's disgusting and petty. Someone can't even post an open house notice without the trash talk. ENOUGH!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So happy Sela is providing another language option for DC. Like the previous commenter, I'm an adult with a tin ear for languages, if only bilingual education had been emphasized when I was growing up. That said, just because you don't have a knack for languages doesn't mean your time was "wasted." Language education should also broaden perspectives and give you tools to tackle things outside your comfort zone.

Amen! If these folks aren't trashing YY, accusing LAMB of cheating, or calling DC Bilingual ghetto, they're bashing Sela. A person can't even post an open house notice without unleashing the nasty. Sick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So happy Sela is providing another language option for DC. Like the previous commenter, I'm an adult with a tin ear for languages, if only bilingual education had been emphasized when I was growing up. That said, just because you don't have a knack for languages doesn't mean your time was "wasted." Language education should also broaden perspectives and give you tools to tackle things outside your comfort zone.

Amen! If these folks aren't trashing YY, accusing LAMB of cheating, or calling DC Bilingual ghetto, they're bashing Sela. A person can't even post an open house notice without unleashing the nasty. Sick.

You drastically undermine your point by lumping legitimate points about the utility of (or, more the lack of utility of) learning Hebrew with all the sniping about YY, LAMB, etc. there has been sniping about Sela too, but posters in this thread have raised true simple facts about what it takes to become fluent in any language, and the relative lack of a use for Hebrew specifically as opposed to other languages taught in DC.

None of that takes away from the more general benefits of bilingual Ed or the interests specific families have in Hebrew. But to characterize all the comments in this thread as "unleashing the nasty" or as the PP before that called it "hating" makes you sound so far on the boosting side that you can't even have a rational conversation about the other posters' points. Which will continue to turn many off of Sela.

[Anonymous]

Not concerned by Sela (my DC is happily enrolled at another charter) but if you think that German is more useful, great! Submit an application and start a German immersion school. The Sela team at least worked and submitted an application to get the school approved.
In addition, you may not like Hebrew as a choice but saying that Hebrew is not useful is ignoring that this is the language at the heart of our civilization (I assume you've heard of the Bible)...

[Anonymous]

Apparently it is boostering to post an open house notice or say that one thinks Hebrew/bilingual education is "useful." But it is not bullying to suggest one is crazy/ bad parent to suggest they would be happy to have their child study Hebrew, e.g, ("delude" there's really little we can do to help her or her kid). When one points out this ugly DCUM dynamic - that's also boostering. To use your hate speech, that's "delusional." If you don't want to send your child to Sela, don't. But stop turning every post - even a freaking open house announcement into a bully fest.

[Anonymous]

The Old testament was written in Hebrew, the new one in ancient Greek. Wouldn't really say that Hebrew is at the heart of civilization. That is a difficult claim to make. If there were a vote, mine would go to Greek or Latin instead since they influenced so many languages, cultures and religion. But it is subjective.

[Anonymous]

The Old testament was written in Hebrew,

And some in another Semitic language, Aramaic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apparently it is boostering to post an open house notice or say that one thinks Hebrew/bilingual education is "useful." But it is not bullying to suggest one is crazy/ bad parent to suggest they would be happy to have their child study Hebrew, e.g, ("delude" there's really little we can do to help her or her kid). When one points out this ugly DCUM dynamic - that's also boostering. To use your hate speech, that's "delusional." If you don't want to send your child to Sela, don't. But stop turning every post - even a freaking open house announcement into a bully fest.

There's a reason you didn't use the quote feature: because then it would be ler no one was having an issue with posting an open house. Im all for calling out real bullies in threads (and there ave definitely been some Sela bullies), but you obviously think anyone who questions anything about Hebrew immersion is a hater and criticising ALL aspects of it. You're hopeless. And your hostility to any aspect of a conversation that is not Sela-positive is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apparently it is boostering to post an open house notice or say that one thinks Hebrew/bilingual education is "useful." But it is not bullying to suggest one is crazy/ bad parent to suggest they would be happy to have their child study Hebrew, e.g, ("delude" there's really little we can do to help her or her kid). When one points out this ugly DCUM dynamic - that's also boostering. To use your hate speech, that's "delusional." If you don't want to send your child to Sela, don't. But stop turning every post - even a freaking open house announcement into a bully fest.

There's a reason you didn't use the quote feature: because then it would be ler no one was having an issue with posting an open house. Im all for calling out real bullies in threads (and there ave definitely been some Sela bullies), but you obviously think anyone who questions anything about Hebrew immersion is a hater and criticising ALL aspects of it. You're hopeless. And your hostility to any aspect of a conversation that is not Sela-positive is ridiculous.

Then it would be clear...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apparently it is boostering to post an open house notice or say that one thinks Hebrew/bilingual education is "useful." But it is not bullying to suggest one is crazy/ bad parent to suggest they would be happy to have their child study Hebrew, e.g, ("delude" there's really little we can do to help her or her kid). When one points out this ugly DCUM dynamic - that's also boostering. To use your hate speech, that's "delusional." If you don't want to send your child to Sela, don't. But stop turning every post - even a freaking open house announcement into a bully fest.

There's a reason you didn't use the quote feature: because then it would be ler no one was having an issue with posting an open house. Im all for calling out real bullies in threads (and there ave definitely been some Sela bullies), but you obviously think anyone who questions anything about Hebrew immersion is a hater and criticising ALL aspects of it. You're hopeless. And your hostility to any aspect of a conversation that is not Sela-positive is ridiculous.

Then it would be clear...[/quote

So hard to follow not "ler" at all. I think people can criticize Hebrew, Mandarin, Spanish, lack of green space, too much green space, green-focused, not green-focused enough - but there is so much nasty bullying on DCUM lately - including all of that personal employee YY crap. It's disgusting and all of this bullying of Sela when someone not from Sela posted open house times? BS and unnecessary. Criticize them for not going far enough into Ward 8 or ignoring Ward 5 or having an open house in a church - but this constant hammering over the mission of their school....is....really....twisted.

[Anonymous]

Just to note, SELA will be a modern Hebrew, not a Biblical Hebrew, immersion school.

[Anonymous]

Exactly. Modern Hebrew, a partially made-up language spoken by what, 7 million people in just one country, and most of them probably speak English too? It is a really weird choice for a language immersion school. I would prefer Yiddish immersion!