Arabic: "The Language of the Future"

[chanel]

A Mansfield ISD program to teach Arabic language and culture in schools is on hold for now, and may not happen at all.

The school district wanted students at selected schools to take Arabic language and culture classes as part of a federally funded grant.

The Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) grant was awarded to Mansfield ISD last summer by the U.S. Department of Education.

As part of the five-year $1.3 million grant, Arabic classes would have been taught at Cross Timbers Intermediate School and other schools feeding into Summit High School.

Parents at Cross Timbers say they were caught off-guard by the program, and were surprised the district only told them about it in a meeting Monday night between parents and Mansfield ISD Superintendent Bob Morrison.

The Department of Education has identified Arabic as a ‘language of the future.’ But parent Joseph Balson was frustrated by the past. “Why are we just now finding out about it?” asked Balson. “It’s them (Mansfield ISD) applying for the grant, getting it approved and them now saying they’ll go back and change it only when they were caught trying to implement this plan without parents knowing about it.”

The FLAP grant was awarded to only five school districts across the country, including Mansfield. The district says the plan is on hold so it can hear from more parents. After that evaluation is over, the district says it is possible they might return the grant.

Mansfield Arabic Program On Hold « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

Perhaps the U.S. Dept of Ed should label it "the language of the Middle Ages".

Would you support an Arabic program in your local school district?

 

[strollingbones]

yes i would support arabic being taught as a language

why not? lets not rob ourselves of the ability to translate etc

it is an elective subject

 

[goldcatt]

It's a language with I'm sure the normal cultural context element. It's useful in may fields, including of course the military. What's the big deal? Should we not allow kids to learn needed skills because of the bogeyman? Did we ban German classes in WWII? Russian during the Cold War? Or did we realize that passing familiarity with those languages was a smart thing for some of our young people to have?

Ridiculous.

 

[editec]

America ought to be teaching foreign languages from 1st grade on.

There's only about 220 million people who speak Arabic so its not exactly one of the most widely spoken tongues.

But the thing about teaching foreign languages on an industrial scale is that we don't have enough educators to do that, plus our schools don't have the funds to support them if we did have that many teachers.

 

[Sunni Man]

Is Arabic the language of the future?

MANSFIELD (CBSDFW.COM) – Some Students at Mansfield ISD schools could soon be learning Arabic as a required language. The school district wants students at select schools to take Arabic language and culture classes as part of a federally funded grant. The Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) grant was awarded to Mansfield ISD last summer by the U.S. Department of Education.

As part of the five-year $1.3 Million grant, Arabic classes would be mandatory at Cross Timbers Intermediate School and Kenneth Davis Elementary School. The program would also be optional for students at T. A. Howard Middle School and Summit High School.

Parents at Cross Timbers say they were caught off-guard by the program, and were surprised the district only told them about it in a meeting Monday night between parents and Mansfield ISD Superintendent Bob Morrison.

The DOE has identified Arabic as a ‘language of the future.’ But parent Joseph Balson was frustrated by the past. “Why are we just now finding out about it?” asked Balson. “It’s them (Mansfield ISD) applying for the grant, getting it approved and them now saying they’ll go back and change it only when they were caught trying to implement this plan without parents knowing about it.”

Trisha Savage thinks it will offer a well-rounded education. “I think its a great opportunity that will open doors. We need to think globally and act locally.”

Some parents had concerns over religion. “The school doesn’t teach Christianity, so I don’t want them teaching Islam,” said parent Baron Kane. During Monday’s meeting Morrison stressed the curriculum would not be about religion, but about Arabic language and culture, similar to the Spanish curriculum already in place in the district.

Shock! Some Texas Children Will Be Forced To Learn Arabic

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[goldcatt]

America ought to be teaching foreign languages from 1st grade on.

There's only about 220 million people who speak Arabic so its not exactly one of the most widely spoken tongues.

But the thing about teaching foreign languages on an industrial scale is that we don't have enough educators to do that, plus our schools don't have the funds to support them if we did have that many teachers.

Thing is, the Federal gov't is giving out grants to help with the costs of teaching foreign languages. These are high school kids looking at language electives, some of whom will be enlisting in the military upon graduating. The military which deals with a lot of Arabic speakers right now and would love to have some kids coming in already familiar with it, I'm sure. See the connection here?

Those parents are a bunch of shortsighted bedwetters.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

Would you support an Arabic program in your local school district?

Yes, I would, although I think Spanish or Chinese would be far more useful today. I believe the U.S. is about the only country in the world where a plurality of our citizens are not bilingual.

 

[High_Gravity]

I think the language should be a choice not mandatory plus I am surprised they are even teaching it, where I live there are hardly any Arabs, is there a large population of them there in that district?

 

[Article 15]

Would you support an Arabic program in your local school district?

Absolutely. Arabic and many other languages.

In fact, I support mandating a foreign language program for all students from day one of the education.

 

[High_Gravity]

Would you support an Arabic program in your local school district?

Absolutely. Arabic and many other languages.

In fact, I support mandating a foreign language program for all students from day one of the education.

I would prefer the students actually learn the English language first before they learn anything else.

 

[jillian]

Schools should teach arabic, spanish, french, italian, chinese and russian even hebrew and latin.

the more knowledge at people's disposal, the better. communication is key and without it, we can't possibly understand how to deal with each other.

do you have any idea how useful people who speak arabic and farsi would be to our state department?

 

[High_Gravity]

Schools should teach arabic, spanish, french, italian, chinese and russian even hebrew and latin.

the more knowledge at people's disposal, the better. communication is key and without it, we can't possibly understand how to deal with each other.

do you have any idea how useful people who speak arabic and farsi would be to our state department?

The thing is our schools are filled with kids from other countries who don't even speak English, more priority has to be put on English. At my high school we had classes full of kids from other countries who didn't know or barely knew any English, ESL ( English as a second language) classes.

 

[syrenn]

I am fine with it so long as it stays an elective.

As it stands a good deal of kids are failing English in my opinion. Instead of worrying about a second language, they should be worried about the principal language.

 

[High_Gravity]

I am fine with it so long as it stays an elective.

As it stands a good deal of kids are failing English in my opinion. Instead of worrying about a second language, they should be worried about the principal language.

Exactly, California and Texas are full of kids who don't speak English. Teach them ENGLISH first, we'll worry about Arabic later.

 

[jillian]

Schools should teach arabic, spanish, french, italian, chinese and russian even hebrew and latin.

the more knowledge at people's disposal, the better. communication is key and without it, we can't possibly understand how to deal with each other.

do you have any idea how useful people who speak arabic and farsi would be to our state department?

The thing is our schools are filled with kids from other countries who don't even speak English, more priority has to be put on English. At my high school we had classes full of kids from other countries who didn't know or barely knew any English, ESL ( English as a second language) classes.

in NYC, kids are tested for the G&T (gifted and talented) programs in their native language. I think that of 28 kids in my son's kindergarten class, my son was one of maybe 3 who spoke english at home. the rest all spoke russian. there were no ESL classes in russian and the kids had to keep up at G&T levels while learning in english.\

most of those kids did very well. i don't see what you do. although to be fair, that may have somethign to do with where i live.

 

[High_Gravity]

Schools should teach arabic, spanish, french, italian, chinese and russian even hebrew and latin.

the more knowledge at people's disposal, the better. communication is key and without it, we can't possibly understand how to deal with each other.

do you have any idea how useful people who speak arabic and farsi would be to our state department?

The thing is our schools are filled with kids from other countries who don't even speak English, more priority has to be put on English. At my high school we had classes full of kids from other countries who didn't know or barely knew any English, ESL ( English as a second language) classes.

in NYC, kids are tested for the G&T (gifted and talented) programs in their native language. I think that of 28 kids in my son's kindergarten class, my son was one of maybe 3 who spoke english at home. the rest all spoke russian. there were no ESL classes in russian and the kids had to keep up at G&T levels while learning in english.\

most of those kids did very well. i don't see what you do. although to be fair, that may have somethign to do with where i live.

To be honest I am not sure what went on in the ESL classes in Kansas City but I can tell you this, a number of kids from Bosnia and Vietnam graduated with me and were very poor at speaking English, barely enough to get by. Kansas City was like a hub for refugees from Bosnia and Vietnam, so we had alot of them in our schools.

 

[wolf_22]

I am fine with it so long as it stays an elective.

As it stands a good deal of kids are failing English in my opinion. Instead of worrying about a second language, they should be worried about the principal language.

but thats whyy we have so many problems - most other countires people learn 2 or 3 languages.
we're started to see the need to catch up as we have jobs being outsourced and when we compare out students with other countries

maybe if our kids learned more than one language in early childhood they would do better with all languages

 

[Big Fitz]

Arabic will never be a language of the future till Islam which is intrinsically tied to it goes through a reformation and liberates itself from a 1300 year old culture bound and determined to remain there through violence and barbarism. 1300 years ago, it was the envy of the world... and never advanced since except when forced by superior cultures.

I sure hope that day comes soon for them.

 

[dilloduck]

This is exactly how our education got screwed up in the first place. There is X amount of time in a school day. Use it to teach the basics. Once they learn the basics, teach them advanced courses.
If the military needs spies that speak Arabic or Farsi they can teach them on their own time and budget.

 

[Big Fitz]

Someone inform me... is there an advantage to learning Arabic in daily life of the average American? I can understand Spanish in the US, because it's become too damn intrusive, and makes you eligible to be management over low/no skill laborers.

But really, in the corporate world, unless you are going to do lots of work in the middle east, where is this skill really usable? Why not learn Czech? Or Hungarian, or Tagalog, or Swahili? The only advantage you get is in the culture of Islam which means, unfortunately, it's of limited use/value outside of that niche.