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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We are new to private schools. Is it unusual for a school to just start a conversation about a school not being a good fit a few weeks before reenrollment contracts go out? Never had an indication it was a thought until a meeting today. There were no prior meetings indicating it was a possibility. Wondering if this is normally how the process works? I would think they would try to let families know in time to apply other places? Just wondering other experiences. Thanks in advance. [/quote]

Yes. And for some kids towards the end of the year.  In my kids’ lower school 2 families were counseled out of improper fit.  One because the child needed more support (LDs) than the school could reasonably supply.  The other because the parents made some racist comments about Jews - [b]they were Arabic [/b]but not [b]Palestinian (Pakistani). [/b]The kid told some Jewish kids terrible things and the parents sent him to school on a free dress day with a Palestine shirt. The school wasn’t a good fit for him and his family.  In our upper school the only kids I know that were counseled out had reputations for being “druggies”.[/quote]

The above bolded comments are racist 1) Arabic is a language Arab is an ethnicity 2) Palestinians and Pakistanis are not confused for one another and 3) [b]Pakistani’s do not speak Arabic [/b]nor are they Arab they are Pakistani and speak Arabic. Maybe the school should council you out as your comments are extremely offensive, racist and frankly stupid.[/quote]

DP here.  I lived in Pakistan for a few years for my job, and I know the culture well.  Many Pakistanis who are religious and grew up there or in another Muslim country DO know at least some Arabic because their holy book is written in it and people who receive a formal education in the Quran learn Arabic.  The mullahs know Arabic.  The imams know Arabic.  Many families pay for their children to receive religious instruction, which includes Arabic.  A middle or upper middle class Pakistani family paying for private school in DC most likely does pay for their children to receive religious instruction/"Quran lessons", so yes, the kids will know at least some Arabic.

The anti-Semitism that is deeply entrenched in Pakstani culture/society was horrifying.  People would causally say the most hateful things about "the Jews", and I was shocked more than once when a different Pakistani colleague I considered Westernized (university in the West, etc) would just casually trot out the most racist/anti-Semitic things.  It is very plausible that kids would hear such things from parents who were born there, even in the West, and we know kids often repeat things even when told not to do so, so yeah.  I believe this happened.

I am sure now someone will tell me I am wrong, but I lived there and you did not.[/quote]

Um, no. Most Pakistanis do not speak Arabic. Most Muslims who are devout or have religious schooling do memorize Quranic verses in Arabic, which is the original language of the Quran. But that does not mean they actually know Arabic. They rote memorize and may (emphasis on *may*) learn the meaning of the verses in their native tongue.

You really don’t know what you’re talking about. And the mullahs do not represent the people.

Moreover, many Pakistanis are illiterate. You think they’re going to dabble in multiple languages? In fact in the countryside, a lot of them speak their regional languages (Pashto, Sindhi, Pahari, etc.) and they don’t speak Urdu very well.

-An American of Pakistani descent  who happens to speak Urdu and Arabic only because I studied Arabic in college on the East Coast[/quote]

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