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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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. 
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+1. the voice of reason[/quote]

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