DC Hebrew approved!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Difficultly in language learning is highly subjective. French grammar eludes me to this day, despite having spent years learning it. I wish I had had the opportunity to go to an immersion school as a child. My husband is Greek and my children are learning Greek (including its difficult alphabet) and love it. Prejudging the abilities (and futures) of DC students is also a sad and dangerous thing to do. It does sound like your real beef is with charter schools as a whole, which is legitimate, but picking on a Hebrew language charter school, particularly, when you as a taxpayer had ample opportunity to oppose the school for the last several months during the application process, seems misplaced. I predict you will be eating your words when one these students goes on to work for the state department or run an Israeli- high tech in 20 years' time. DC-CAS trumps everything in every DCPS institution. My kids are happy at their school and I am not moving them, but all of this Hebrew (and coded Jewish) bashing is really depressing.

no, what is depressing is that criticizing the creation of a full immersion Hebrew charter school in DC must be "coded jewish bashing". nice way to face opinions you do not share

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Posters who are trying to make this about religion are wrong. This is not about religion and as several posters noted, children from all around the city will have the possibility to enroll. It is a secular school.

I read the charter. I posted a few pages back that I am a fluent Modern Hebrew speaker. I've been to Israel many many times and I am Jewish. I am also against this charter school.

Hebrew is a very difficult language to learn, and, like a PP pointed out, most of you who think it doesn't matter what language is taught are probably not fluent speakers, readers and writers of Hebrew. Often, people don't know that Hebrew has a script form and a block form and they are wholly different in design, making both reading and writing challenging. Of course, it is also a deeply satisfying language to learn as it has influences from a number of other languages. And, yes, it is spoken by a small number of people, relatively speaking. According to most experts, that number is somewhere between 7-9 million people worldwide. And while a PP is correct that a MH speaker can have a conversation with a Biblical Hebrew speaker, the likely of that happening in the real world, outside of academic circles, is very very small.

Why we, as taxpayers, should care about this is two fold. One, since we already expect children from all areas of the city to attend this secular school, we are saddling students, many from families that many others have pointed out have few choices for a "good education" in DCPS or over capacity charters, with the task of learning a difficult language they will never use, which is, in my view, educationally irresponsible. Parents who want their children to learn Hebrew, for whatever reason, have many other options. The child who applies to this school because there are few other choices and has no interest in this language or no expectations of using it, are the ones who will not be served by this school's stated mission.

Yes, I would definitely be opposed to any immersion charter school based on a language that was both very difficult to learn and spoken by a relatively small number of people. At least Swedish is read left to right.

The second reason we as taxpayers should be concerned about this school is fairly evident right in this thread by all the posters who say, "if you don't like it, start your own school." The promise of the charter school movement was that it would improve public education for all. In reality, DC charter law allows taxpayer money to be used to create someone small group's "own school". This is not just, no matter how legal it may be.

As a Jew, I take my responsibility to heal the world very seriously, and this school, with such a narrow focus, does not do this for most of the children in DC. It sets them up with a very difficult language challenge for little or no practical advantage. I have a hard time understanding why so many posters on this thread fail to grasp this.

But, I get that the majority of the people on this thread celebrate the school's approval and perhaps plan on enrolling there, thus the somewhat ugly side of "winning". For example, calling anyone who disagrees with the approval a troll. Really? A troll for disagreeing? Because I re read the whole 12 pages of this thread and so far, anyone who challenged whether this school should be chartered did not speak in any kind of trolling way. They just made points you don't want to hear.

Ultimately, I think the PP who pointed out that DC-CAS trumps foreign language is correct, and that really makes my point of why a niche school such as this does nothing to serve the purpose of the charter movement.

+1. the voice of reason

[Anonymous]

My opinion as a non-Jew, is that a lot of this heated opposition to Hebrew (by seemingly lazy folks who prefer to bitch at their computers rather than follow the works of the charter school board through the long charter review and approval process) is really code for fear of "the Other" as represented by Jews. I "face" opinions I don't like, but I also call out hypocrites when I see them. There was no opposition to Catholic schools who flipped overnight to secular charter schools, there was no opposition to Latin schools, Chinese immersion, Afrocentric-orientated schools, art-based schools, media-based schools, etc. This need to bash a school that doesn't exist, to call its founders "slick" as if they are trying to perpetuate some grand scheme on taxpayers is pretty wacky...and calls your motivations into question, that's all I am saying...

[Anonymous]

^^This.

From a non-Jew whose kid goes to JCC pre-school this year and will go to a 90% AA DCPS school next year...diversity is the spice of life. It's what makes DC such an interesting place to live (at least, that is, east of the park).

[Anonymous]

no, what is depressing is that criticizing the creation of a full immersion Hebrew charter school in DC must be "coded jewish bashing". nice way to face opinions you do not share

Yes. yes and +1000.

This is what depresses me the most.

[Anonymous]

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

^^THIS, AGREED x 1,000,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^This.

From a non-Jew whose kid goes to JCC pre-school this year and will go to a 90% AA DCPS school next year...diversity is the spice of life. It's what makes DC such an interesting place to live (at least, that is, east of the park).

Actually, not That. From a non-Jew who would have cut off her big toe to get her kid into DCJCC last year, as well as a DCPS school this year, where DC would be part of the 1% of her race. but isn't a fan of a Hebrew immersion charter school. I also live very east of the park, not that it matters. Nice try though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Actually, not That. From a non-Jew who would have cut off her big toe to get her kid into DCJCC last year, as well as a DCPS school this year, where DC would be part of the 1% of her race. but isn't a fan of a Hebrew immersion charter school. I also live very east of the park, not that it matters. Nice try though.

blah grammar errors. stand down grammar police. I know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^This.

From a non-Jew whose kid goes to JCC pre-school this year and will go to a 90% AA DCPS school next year...diversity is the spice of life. It's what makes DC such an interesting place to live (at least, that is, east of the park).

Actually, not That. From a non-Jew who would have cut off her big toe to get her kid into DCJCC last year, as well as a DCPS school this year, where DC would be part of the 1% of her race. but isn't a fan of a Hebrew immersion charter school. I also live very east of the park, not that it matters. Nice try though.

So don't send your kid there. And be a more active citizen/tax-payer/parent during next year's crop of charter schools, and make sure to oppose other language charter schools/nice charter schools (which they all pretty much are) to be intellectually consistent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^This.

From a non-Jew whose kid goes to JCC pre-school this year and will go to a 90% AA DCPS school next year...diversity is the spice of life. It's what makes DC such an interesting place to live (at least, that is, east of the park).

Actually, not That. From a non-Jew who would have cut off her big toe to get her kid into DCJCC last year, as well as a DCPS school this year, where DC would be part of the 1% of her race. but isn't a fan of a Hebrew immersion charter school. I also live very east of the park, not that it matters. Nice try though.

So don't send your kid there. And be a more active citizen/tax-payer/parent during next year's crop of charter schools, and make sure to oppose other language charter schools/niche charter schools (which they all pretty much are) to be intellectually consistent.

[Anonymous]

All I want to know is, did the Arabic Immersion school also get through. If not, why not?

[Anonymous]

The Arabic charter did not get through because, according to the Board, their application was abysmal, no curriculum, no budget, no planning reduced to writing. Smart people with a nice idea, but no work done to communicate what they wanted to do, or how they were going to pay for it. Hopefully, they will hire some educational consultants and come back with a better application next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay. You win. Not let's get to work to start that Ebonics charter!

how about English you first learn? Yep, I wrote that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All I want to know is, did the Arabic Immersion school also get through. If not, why not?

I hope the rest of the posters on this forum actually read up on the charter approval process and read the applications. Or are they just blindly making comments on things they have no idea about simply because they don't like the idea of something? Must be the same people who didn't involve themselves at all in the process over the past year.