Sela in the Post

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, some really ignorant posters on here. Learning any foreign language at a young age improves cognitive development. It makes future language learning much easier. Hebrew is a very difficult language to learn at older ages, unlike Spanish and French. And Hebrew is a gateway language to Arabic. If there were an Arabic charter school in DC then great - but there's not.

And yes, everyone in Israel speaks English so do the vast majority of French, Spanish, etc.

You sound like a defensive Sela parent?

In any case why not just learn Arabic which is spoken by far more people and amongst the speakers of Arabic English is spoken by relatively few folks. And surely fluency in Arabic is far more practical if you are looking for a job.

FWIW I've traveled in Spain, France and Israel and English is far more widely spoken in Israel and far better than it is in Spain or France. I don't think I encountered a single native Israeli who didn't speak fluent English and don't know what you are talking about when it comes to Spain as English isn't well spoken outside of the tourism trade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of negative Nancy's here! If you're not interested in this school for your child, it's simple...don't apply and please don't comment!
D

Ummm it is a public charter school not a private.

So yeah I care whether it is a good use of public funds and to me it appears not to be.

.

Some people would prefer AA children study in drill academies, with no music, art, foreign languages, where focus is on children walking silently through halls, single-file...In the best light, your critique is privileged paternalism - which is nefarious in its own right. It’s not an especially good use of my tax dollars to support pre-k 3 for rich white families, either. Imagine the uproar if we tried to mount that fight...

You lost me at AA.

I think dual language education is a great idea. I think it is inane to have one of the languages be a niche language that in and of itself serves no practical purpose.

Spend these funds on more Spanish immersion programs. Or Mandarin. Or French. Or Arabic. Or some language that will have practical uses.

Otherwise this program is just drills.

+1

This school serves no purpose except to a few people in a tiny country that should really teach its citizens English anyway, alongside hebrew. Almost none of the kids in Sela will ever visit Israel anyway.

So much bigotry packed into this (poorly written) post.

Yep - gross. Israel should teach English not Hebrew, poor African American children shouldn’t dare to dream as they will never be able to travel...horrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, some really ignorant posters on here. Learning any foreign language at a young age improves cognitive development. It makes future language learning much easier. Hebrew is a very difficult language to learn at older ages, unlike Spanish and French. And Hebrew is a gateway language to Arabic. If there were an Arabic charter school in DC then great - but there's not.

And yes, everyone in Israel speaks English so do the vast majority of French, Spanish, etc.

You sound like a defensive Sela parent?

In any case why not just learn Arabic which is spoken by far more people and amongst the speakers of Arabic English is spoken by relatively few folks. And surely fluency in Arabic is far more practical if you are looking for a job.

FWIW I've traveled in Spain, France and Israel and English is far more widely spoken in Israel and far better than it is in Spain or France. I don't think I encountered a single native Israeli who didn't speak fluent English and don't know what you are talking about when it comes to Spain as English isn't well spoken outside of the tourism trade.

And that’s crazy. The level of English spoken in Western Europe is high - especially in France. Plenty of Israelis have poor English - not, of course, in the “tourist trade.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, some really ignorant posters on here. Learning any foreign language at a young age improves cognitive development. It makes future language learning much easier. Hebrew is a very difficult language to learn at older ages, unlike Spanish and French. And Hebrew is a gateway language to Arabic. If there were an Arabic charter school in DC then great - but there's not.

And yes, everyone in Israel speaks English so do the vast majority of French, Spanish, etc.

You sound like a defensive Sela parent?

In any case why not just learn Arabic which is spoken by far more people and amongst the speakers of Arabic English is spoken by relatively few folks. And surely fluency in Arabic is far more practical if you are looking for a job.

FWIW I've traveled in Spain, France and Israel and English is far more widely spoken in Israel and far better than it is in Spain or France. I don't think I encountered a single native Israeli who didn't speak fluent English and don't know what you are talking about when it comes to Spain as English isn't well spoken outside of the tourism trade.

Why don’t you just learn Arabic? If you think it’s that easy. Let me give you the website for the nearest charter school...oh wait, there isn’t one

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hebrew isn't a dead language. There is a whole country of people with substantial business interests, including biotech and pharma. But it's pretty small country and not a lot of people are going to have frequent dealings with it. So, for those who want this, Sela is a good idea.

I’ve never been to Israel and I’m not Jewish, but there are any Israelis in this area. In my everyday life, I hear Hebrew spoken more often than Greek, Italian, or Dutch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of negative Nancy's here! If you're not interested in this school for your child, it's simple...don't apply and please don't comment!
D

Ummm it is a public charter school not a private.

So yeah I care whether it is a good use of public funds and to me it appears not to be.

.

Some people would prefer AA children study in drill academies, with no music, art, foreign languages, where focus is on children walking silently through halls, single-file...In the best light, your critique is privileged paternalism - which is nefarious in its own right. It’s not an especially good use of my tax dollars to support pre-k 3 for rich white families, either. Imagine the uproar if we tried to mount that fight...

You lost me at AA.

I think dual language education is a great idea. I think it is inane to have one of the languages be a niche language that in and of itself serves no practical purpose.

Spend these funds on more Spanish immersion programs. Or Mandarin. Or French. Or Arabic. Or some language that will have practical uses.

Otherwise this program is just drills.

+1

This school serves no purpose except to a few people in a tiny country that should really teach its citizens English anyway, alongside hebrew. Almost none of the kids in Sela will ever visit Israel anyway.

So much bigotry packed into this (poorly written) post.

Yep - gross. Israel should teach English not Hebrew, poor African American children shouldn’t dare to dream as they will never be able to travel...horrible.

What a dumb retort. No one suggested Israel change anything. And the point of bi-lingual education isn't to prepare kids to be able to travel but even if it were that would be another reason why it makes no sense to expend tax payer funds teaching kids to speak an obscure language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hebrew isn't a dead language. There is a whole country of people with substantial business interests, including biotech and pharma. But it's pretty small country and not a lot of people are going to have frequent dealings with it. So, for those who want this, Sela is a good idea.

I’ve never been to Israel and I’m not Jewish, but there are any Israelis in this area. In my everyday life, I hear Hebrew spoken more often than Greek, Italian, or Dutch.

Boy there are some dumb attempted defenses of this program in this thread.

So someone heard some people in their neighborhood speaking Hebrew so therefore it makes sense to educate some inner city kids in an obscure language rather than one that would enable them to get jobs and better compete in the world?

I had an Eritrean Uber driver last week and I bet there are as many Eritreans in this area as Israelis - is that a compelling argument for an immersion Eritrean charter school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, some really ignorant posters on here. Learning any foreign language at a young age improves cognitive development. It makes future language learning much easier. Hebrew is a very difficult language to learn at older ages, unlike Spanish and French. And Hebrew is a gateway language to Arabic. If there were an Arabic charter school in DC then great - but there's not.

And yes, everyone in Israel speaks English so do the vast majority of French, Spanish, etc.

You sound like a defensive Sela parent?

In any case why not just learn Arabic which is spoken by far more people and amongst the speakers of Arabic English is spoken by relatively few folks. And surely fluency in Arabic is far more practical if you are looking for a job.

FWIW I've traveled in Spain, France and Israel and English is far more widely spoken in Israel and far better than it is in Spain or France. I don't think I encountered a single native Israeli who didn't speak fluent English and don't know what you are talking about when it comes to Spain as English isn't well spoken outside of the tourism trade.

And that’s crazy. The level of English spoken in Western Europe is high - especially in France. Plenty of Israelis have poor English - not, of course, in the “tourist trade.”

I was actually shocked by the level of English spoken by many Israelis. Israel wishes to promote Hebrew first and foremost which is fine but isolationist of them. Many do not learn English in school or not well. I didn’t travel there as a tourist so I may have met a different group than others commenting. So, my assumption is that Sela is somewhat tied to this project of Hebrew language revival but at what cost?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of negative Nancy's here! If you're not interested in this school for your child, it's simple...don't apply and please don't comment!
D

Ummm it is a public charter school not a private.

So yeah I care whether it is a good use of public funds and to me it appears not to be.

.

Some people would prefer AA children study in drill academies, with no music, art, foreign languages, where focus is on children walking silently through halls, single-file...In the best light, your critique is privileged paternalism - which is nefarious in its own right. It’s not an especially good use of my tax dollars to support pre-k 3 for rich white families, either. Imagine the uproar if we tried to mount that fight...

You lost me at AA.

I think dual language education is a great idea. I think it is inane to have one of the languages be a niche language that in and of itself serves no practical purpose.

Spend these funds on more Spanish immersion programs. Or Mandarin. Or French. Or Arabic. Or some language that will have practical uses.

Otherwise this program is just drills.

+1

This school serves no purpose except to a few people in a tiny country that should really teach its citizens English anyway, alongside hebrew. Almost none of the kids in Sela will ever visit Israel anyway.

So much bigotry packed into this (poorly written) post.

Yep - gross. Israel should teach English not Hebrew, poor African American children shouldn’t dare to dream as they will never be able to travel...horrible.

What a dumb retort. No one suggested Israel change anything. And the point of bi-lingual education isn't to prepare kids to be able to travel but even if it were that would be another reason why it makes no sense to expend tax payer funds teaching kids to speak an obscure language.

Take a reading comprehension course. "tiny country that should really teach its citizens English anyway" is indeed telling Israel to give up Hebrew - saying almost none of the kids - is indeed brimming with racism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hebrew isn't a dead language. There is a whole country of people with substantial business interests, including biotech and pharma. But it's pretty small country and not a lot of people are going to have frequent dealings with it. So, for those who want this, Sela is a good idea.

I’ve never been to Israel and I’m not Jewish, but there are any Israelis in this area. In my everyday life, I hear Hebrew spoken more often than Greek, Italian, or Dutch.

Boy there are some dumb attempted defenses of this program in this thread.

So someone heard some people in their neighborhood speaking Hebrew so therefore it makes sense to educate some inner city kids in an obscure language rather than one that would enable them to get jobs and better compete in the world?

I had an Eritrean Uber driver last week and I bet there are as many Eritreans in this area as Israelis - is that a compelling argument for an immersion Eritrean charter school?

Boy there is some racist BS in your post. Spare us your whitesplaining. Actually, an Amharic/Tigrit immersion program would be fantastic. Great idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, some really ignorant posters on here. Learning any foreign language at a young age improves cognitive development. It makes future language learning much easier. Hebrew is a very difficult language to learn at older ages, unlike Spanish and French. And Hebrew is a gateway language to Arabic. If there were an Arabic charter school in DC then great - but there's not.

And yes, everyone in Israel speaks English so do the vast majority of French, Spanish, etc.

You sound like a defensive Sela parent?

In any case why not just learn Arabic which is spoken by far more people and amongst the speakers of Arabic English is spoken by relatively few folks. And surely fluency in Arabic is far more practical if you are looking for a job.

FWIW I've traveled in Spain, France and Israel and English is far more widely spoken in Israel and far better than it is in Spain or France. I don't think I encountered a single native Israeli who didn't speak fluent English and don't know what you are talking about when it comes to Spain as English isn't well spoken outside of the tourism trade.

And that’s crazy. The level of English spoken in Western Europe is high - especially in France. Plenty of Israelis have poor English - not, of course, in the “tourist trade.”

I was actually shocked by the level of English spoken by many Israelis. Israel wishes to promote Hebrew first and foremost which is fine but isolationist of them. Many do not learn English in school or not well. I didn’t travel there as a tourist so I may have met a different group than others commenting. So, my assumption is that Sela is somewhat tied to this project of Hebrew language revival but at what cost?

Is it isolation of Italians to speak Italian? Maltese to speak Maltese? Finns to speak Finnish? Your bias is showing. Hebrew is officially revived. - and has been for 100+ years. I guess the cost is a strong public school option for a diverse cross-section of DC students...sounds like a win-win.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, some really ignorant posters on here. Learning any foreign language at a young age improves cognitive development. It makes future language learning much easier. Hebrew is a very difficult language to learn at older ages, unlike Spanish and French. And Hebrew is a gateway language to Arabic. If there were an Arabic charter school in DC then great - but there's not.

And yes, everyone in Israel speaks English so do the vast majority of French, Spanish, etc.

You sound like a defensive Sela parent?

In any case why not just learn Arabic which is spoken by far more people and amongst the speakers of Arabic English is spoken by relatively few folks. And surely fluency in Arabic is far more practical if you are looking for a job.

FWIW I've traveled in Spain, France and Israel and English is far more widely spoken in Israel and far better than it is in Spain or France. I don't think I encountered a single native Israeli who didn't speak fluent English and don't know what you are talking about when it comes to Spain as English isn't well spoken outside of the tourism trade.

And that’s crazy. The level of English spoken in Western Europe is high - especially in France. Plenty of Israelis have poor English - not, of course, in the “tourist trade.”

I was actually shocked by the level of English spoken by many Israelis. Israel wishes to promote Hebrew first and foremost which is fine but isolationist of them. Many do not learn English in school or not well. I didn’t travel there as a tourist so I may have met a different group than others commenting. So, my assumption is that Sela is somewhat tied to this project of Hebrew language revival but at what cost?

Is it isolation of Italians to speak Italian? Maltese to speak Maltese? Finns to speak Finnish? Your bias is showing. Hebrew is officially revived. - and has been for 100+ years. I guess the cost is a strong public school option for a diverse cross-section of DC students...sounds like a win-win.

The pro Sela crowd on here is conflating all sorts of arguments.

There is no problem with any country or ethnic or religious group speaking its own language. And also speaking, or not speaking, English.

The problem is when DCPS funds a dual language immersion program in a niche language that in and of itself is of almost no practical value to its students.

It is of no consequence or relevance that Hebrew has been officially revived - what matters is whether speaking Hebrew confers some educational advantage and improved career prospects to its students and whether public monies should therefore be spent on it.

And immersion programs are also of great value educationally.

But the fact that immersion programs are of great value does not mean it follows that every language should be offered. The pro Sela folks on here with a straight face would argue that DCPS should fund a dual language English/Maltese program (this would actually make some narrative sense since Maltese is a semitic language)? Or a dual language English/Finnish program? How about a dual language Klingon/English program?

If you feel strongly that your kids should speak Hebrew then great - teach them Hebrew yourself or find a program through a local synagogue or private school. Same is true of lots of other languages.

But you need to have stronger arguments than anyone has offered in this thread to justify spending scarce public money to educate kids in a language that in all likelihood they will never have any practical use for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, some really ignorant posters on here. Learning any foreign language at a young age improves cognitive development. It makes future language learning much easier. Hebrew is a very difficult language to learn at older ages, unlike Spanish and French. And Hebrew is a gateway language to Arabic. If there were an Arabic charter school in DC then great - but there's not.

And yes, everyone in Israel speaks English so do the vast majority of French, Spanish, etc.

You sound like a defensive Sela parent?

In any case why not just learn Arabic which is spoken by far more people and amongst the speakers of Arabic English is spoken by relatively few folks. And surely fluency in Arabic is far more practical if you are looking for a job.

FWIW I've traveled in Spain, France and Israel and English is far more widely spoken in Israel and far better than it is in Spain or France. I don't think I encountered a single native Israeli who didn't speak fluent English and don't know what you are talking about when it comes to Spain as English isn't well spoken outside of the tourism trade.

And that’s crazy. The level of English spoken in Western Europe is high - especially in France. Plenty of Israelis have poor English - not, of course, in the “tourist trade.”

I was actually shocked by the level of English spoken by many Israelis. Israel wishes to promote Hebrew first and foremost which is fine but isolationist of them. Many do not learn English in school or not well. I didn’t travel there as a tourist so I may have met a different group than others commenting. So, my assumption is that Sela is somewhat tied to this project of Hebrew language revival but at what cost?

Is it isolation of Italians to speak Italian? Maltese to speak Maltese? Finns to speak Finnish? Your bias is showing. Hebrew is officially revived. - and has been for 100+ years. I guess the cost is a strong public school option for a diverse cross-section of DC students...sounds like a win-win.

The pro Sela crowd on here is conflating all sorts of arguments.

There is no problem with any country or ethnic or religious group speaking its own language. And also speaking, or not speaking, English.

The problem is when DCPS funds a dual language immersion program in a niche language that in and of itself is of almost no practical value to its students.

It is of no consequence or relevance that Hebrew has been officially revived - what matters is whether speaking Hebrew confers some educational advantage and improved career prospects to its students and whether public monies should therefore be spent on it.

And immersion programs are also of great value educationally.

But the fact that immersion programs are of great value does not mean it follows that every language should be offered. The pro Sela folks on here with a straight face would argue that DCPS should fund a dual language English/Maltese program (this would actually make some narrative sense since Maltese is a semitic language)? Or a dual language English/Finnish program? How about a dual language Klingon/English program?

If you feel strongly that your kids should speak Hebrew then great - teach them Hebrew yourself or find a program through a local synagogue or private school. Same is true of lots of other languages.

But you need to have stronger arguments than anyone has offered in this thread to justify spending scarce public money to educate kids in a language that in all likelihood they will never have any practical use for.

The worst of it is that the time that some in the article said spent on subject; IF, they are not scoring highly on PARCC or some other assessment that valuable time at this age should be spent on remediation. By middle school they will behind and never catch up. If you are advanced or proficient sure go ahead and learn Hebrew or any other language but do not market it to a population who deserves more. In a few years they won't remember how to speak Hebrew just some phrases! The low reading of some students in DCPS school is shocking.

[Anonymous]

I would fully support a Finnish immersion school. Finnish is a very difficult language - and the Finnish educational model is arguably the best or one of the best in the world. The anti-Sela harpies come out every time Sela receives any news whatsoever, e.g., being ranked as a four star school or being ranked tier 1. If you don’t want to send your kid there, don’t. I don’t particularly like my tax dollars being spent at several far less excelling DCPS or charter schools, or subsidizing rich families with pre-k 3. However, there is plenty utility in learning any difficult language, particularly if you want school to be rigorous and interesting, which we know you don’t think poor children or children of color deserve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of negative Nancy's here! If you're not interested in this school for your child, it's simple...don't apply and please don't comment!
D

Ummm it is a public charter school not a private.

So yeah I care whether it is a good use of public funds and to me it appears not to be.

.

Some people would prefer AA children study in drill academies, with no music, art, foreign languages, where focus is on children walking silently through halls, single-file...In the best light, your critique is privileged paternalism - which is nefarious in its own right. It’s not an especially good use of my tax dollars to support pre-k 3 for rich white families, either. Imagine the uproar if we tried to mount that fight...

YES!!! [phone]