SELA! Hebrew immersion charter
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Anonymous
Isn't it great that you aren't the mother (or father) of every kid in D.C.? I find Spanish immersion a huge waste of time, which is why I tried to get into YY (and failed). Different strokes for different folks. |
Anonymous
Go start a Swahili school, and I will consider it. I learned Italian in high school. No family ties to Italy. Kept studying it. Learned to appreciate opera. Read Italian newspapers online for fun. Chose to work in a field where I deal a lot with Italian companies, many of whom have bad English. So, I certainly believe it's likely and possible for others. |
Anonymous
Everything on DCUM is anecdotal and not fact-based. Some people saw their table mobbed others saw their table empty, etc. etc. Nobody's right and nobody's wrong. People just give their opinions over and over. Go on with your bad self, Sela. We welcome you to the charter community. |
Anonymous
Not only that, but time will tell re: whether the "many" families that have this demand are or are not Jewish. It's one thing to say "Hey, why not, any language is good if I can get a slot", but a wholly different thing to say "This is actually valuable for my child". Barring cultural/family/geographic connection, it is hard to see how there is a critical mass of non-Jewish families that will feel that way. Nothing in existence today demonstrates it will happen - aren't there other Hebrew charter schools in other cities in existence today? What % of their enrollment is non-Jewish and have any of them been around long enough to show that non-Jewish families with no other ties to Hebrew "value" the language enough to keep enrollment up and continue speaking Hebrew into adulthood? |
Anonymous
I am fully aware that Sela is a charter school and thus non-religious. I used the analogy of the fact that I considered sending my son to a Jewish day school since a Jewish day school would also teach Hebrew. I see no problem with any school that teaches Hebrew as an option for my child whether the school is religious or secular as Sela is. |
Anonymous
What is the problem if, say, 90% of Sela applicants are Jewish? They got the charter approved, and I guess there's enough kids in DC who are Jewish (either American or Israelis) to make one charter school work. I am sure some charters have 90% Christian student bodies. In my mind that's the most realistic scenario - cannot see why anyone who is not Jewish (or has significant links to Israel) would apply. But, again, I don't see the problem with that. If there was an Arabic charter, and 90% students were Muslims, well, that's life. |
Anonymous
IMO I think immersing a child in a language, even a lesser spoke language, is not a waste of time since such activity is likely to increase a child's brain power. My family member learned German via immersion as a child and is hence fluent in English and German and his brain power is quite good too! |
Anonymous
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I didn't bother teaching my DC Korean which is my native language. No point. I mostly use it to watch soap operas and most Koreans speak English, Mandarin and/or French.
Learning another language is a big commitment aside from that it's good for the brain so I'll rather DC learn a language he'll find useful: English, Mandarin and French/Spanish in our case. |
Anonymous
As someone who works regularly with Korean scientists, I wish I knew Korean. Their English is atrocious or non-existent. I think Korean is a lot more useful than you think! |
Anonymous
| Than you should learn Korean. It's not a difficult language to learn about as hard as Hebrew, and nowhere as difficult as English and Mandarin. No irregulars, has an alphabet and Koreans aren't snobs about accents like the French. You'll be a big hit! I know several non-Koreans who speak excellent Korean and I find it amazing... |
Anonymous
Most likely to alienate low-SES DC parents? (Sort of the YY model) |
Anonymous
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If teaching Hebrew makes Sela a "Jewish" school, then apparently the exact same logic would make any school that teaches Spanish a "Catholic" school, since most people who speak Spanish are Catholic.
Faulty logic. |
Anonymous
So "Many families, enough to start a charter school" is not proven by the fact that they have, in fact, started a charter school? What further proof do you need? |
Anonymous
HELLO! |
Anonymous
You are misrepresenting the logic presented. What people are saying is, there is not a critical mass of non-Jewish people who have demonstrated they value Hebrew, since there are not any other major reasons to learn it if you're not connected to it (it is not useful in world business). Also, this country is about to be majority Spanish speakers. It is absurd to draw any parallels between the strong alignment between Hebrew and Judiasm, and the much broader relationship Americans have with Spanish language and say Catholicism is just as connected to Spanish language as Judiasm is to Hebrew. Spanish is SO much broader: this is the US where there are so many job and community connections to learning Spanish which have zero to do with Catholicism. Are you really going to try to assert with a straight face that currently in the US there is a significant job or community benefit to speaking Hebrew that involves a major population outside the US Jewish community? Where is this significant population of non-Jewish Hebrew speakers? But there is a ton of people who are not ethnically or culturally Spanish-speaking and yet they speak Spanish. Because an almost majority of the US population speaks it. It's an asset in the job world, part of North America is a Spanish-speaking country. Every US state has a significant and growing Spanish-speaking population. |