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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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 [b]Hebrew is a gateway language to Arabic[/b]. 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. [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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.” :roll: [/quote]

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?[/quote]

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. [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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. [/quote]

Funny but why all the SELA boosters playing the race card and I bet not of you all are black, WP pictures only AA children why is that? What race are the teachers? Interesting, we're not playing the race card, we are saying AA title 1 low-income children deserve better so says a black mothers! [/quote]

Sure you are.  :roll: 70% of the children at Sela are African-American, which means that almost certainly a majority of the mothers at Sela are African-American. [/quote]

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