Reply to SELA teacher exodus

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I thought the school did not have or desire a religious affiliation?[/quote]

Technically it doesn't, but in practice, Hebrew instruction is central to Jewish religious practice and Israeli culture but has few applications outside of that.  Only about 9 million people speak it worldwide, most of whom are in Israel.  In the US a couple of hundred thousand people speak it as a first language.  Israel has an impressive tech industry but Hebrew isn't necessary to do business.

That leaves two types of families who would be interested: people who want the Hebrew that is part of religious practice (but can't won't pay for expensive Jewish day schools) and families who will sign up for a well-run charter with a base of middle-class families supporting it, even if the target language won't have practical use for careers in the U.S.

Noted education advocate Diane Ravitch, who is Jewish herself and has family members in Jewish day schools, wrote a compelling article about why these Hebrew immersion schools are problematic:  http://dianeravitch.net/2013/08/03/jewish-charter-schools-a-bad-idea-whose-time-has-come/comment-page-1/

These immersion schools are a thinly-veiled way to get taxpayers to foot the bill for language instruction that is useful only for religion.  Although I agree with Ravitch's thesis, I believe the real losers aren't church-state separation supporters like myself.  The real losers are lower-income DC families for whom a school like this is the only accessible charter, and while preferable to a failing school does not offer them the benefits of a widely-spoken language such as Spanish, Mandarin, French, Arabic, Russian, German, or Japanese, all of which can open doors for a bilingual person.

I say this as a Jewish person who has many family members active in their synagogues and day schools.

[/quote]

Thank you PP.  You just eloquently stated pretty much every aspect of Sela that had me scratching my head about why it was approved and being opened from Day 1.  Now the question is, is PCSB aware of the concerns, do parents know this about teachers leaving (if it's true), and what is being done for next steps?  Will there be school next year, and if so, who will be teaching?  If I were a parent, I'd have camped out at the Head of School's office as soon as I heard any of these rumors of mass teacher exodus.  [/quote]

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