Mandatory Arabic Classes Coming To Mansfield

[K-McD]

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.

Link
Well, we’re moving toward a muslim country anyway, so why not?:nope:

 

[Not_Sure_1]

If anything should be a required language, it should be either Latin or Greek, the foundations of our society. Arabic is nowhere near as important as these languages.

 

[JimR-OCDS]

From my understanding in reading the article, it doesn’t mandate that students learn Arabic, but that Arabic be one of the list of foreign languages offered.

Jim

 

[Rich_Olszewski]

If anything should be a required language, it should be either Latin or Greek, the foundations of our society. Arabic is nowhere near as important as these languages.

Oh? I studied Latin for 4 years (Caesar, Ovid, Virgil) and Greek (Xenephon and Homer) for three intensely when I was in high school, and those have little place in modern life except for classical scholars. or as curiosities or for “bragging rights.”

More important today would be Chinese and Arabic and the major European languages, I believe.

 

[scipio337]

From my understanding in reading the article, it doesn’t mandate that students learn Arabic, but that Arabic be one of the list of foreign languages offered.

Jim

The phrases “required language”, “Arabic classes would be mandatory” lead me to think otherwise at last at two of the schools.

I can understand offering it, and requiring X amount of foriegn language, by why require a specific foriegn language??

 

[ThereseOfRoses]

Oh? I studied Latin for 4 years (Caesar, Ovid, Virgil) and Greek (Xenephon and Homer) for three intensely when I was in high school, and those have little place in modern life except for classical scholars. or as curiosities or for “bragging rights.”

More important today would be Chinese and Arabic and the major European languages, I believe.

In the US, it Spanish is more useful!

 

[scipio337]

Oh? I studied Latin for 4 years (Caesar, Ovid, Virgil) and Greek (Xenephon and Homer) for three intensely when I was in high school, and those have little place in modern life except for classical scholars. or as curiosities or for “bragging rights.”

More important today would be Chinese and Arabic and the major European languages, I believe.

I studied them in college. Minor in the Classics. I translated 1 book of The Aenid into English as a Senior project.

I found both Greek and Latin to be very valuable in everyday life. It was a springboard into other Latin languages, too.

Either way, I don’t think making any particular language mandatory is good policy for a public school.

 

[Dale_M]

Here is the statement from the school district, which says in part:

Recent concerns have been raised by parents concerning plans for the curriculum. We are working with parents and staff for the language curriculum development.

* Mansfield ISD has slowed the process of implementation to get parent (name removed by moderator)ut for curriculum creation.
* There are no “mandatory Arabic classes” as being falsely reported in the media.
* As part of language acquisition and development, the early grades would have elements of Arabic language within the framework of the state-mandated curriculum.
* In the K-6 grades (Davis Elementary and Cross Timbers Intermediate), the curriculum-writing process has stopped.
* In grades 7-12 (T.A. Howard Middle and Summit High School), Arabic language will be offered as elective courses to meet foreign language requirement.
* This project is federally funded for $1.3 million dollars over a 5 year period.

mansfieldisd.org/departments/communications/news/10-11/february/arabicgrant.htm

The news article’s claim about “mandatory Arabic classes” seems to be erroneous.

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

Oh? I studied Latin for 4 years (Caesar, Ovid, Virgil) and Greek (Xenephon and Homer) for three intensely when I was in high school, and those have little place in modern life except for classical scholars. or as curiosities or for “bragging rights.”

More important today would be Chinese and Arabic and the major European languages, I believe.

If you care at all about Western and Christian culture, Latin will stretch your abilities.

Mandatory ‘language’ classes, however, would meet with my opposition.

 

[Raskolnikov]

Well, we’re moving toward a muslim country anyway, so why not?

We’re moving toward a Muslim country? If current demographic trends say anything, it’s that we’re moving toward a more Catholic country, though also a spanish speaking one.

Since it is now clear that this “mandatory” teaching of Arabic was just melodrama, I think more schools should offer Arabic. I think my old Catholic high school recently started offering it. It is, after all, one of the most widely spoken languages. Chinese too would be useful. After all, depending on the precise nature of the xenophobic seige mentality one happens to have, it’s either the Chinese or the Arabs that are going to take over the world (though I’m still counting on the Japanese invading with an army of robots). Better learn the languages of our future occupiers.

 

[Not_Sure_1]

actually if we are occupied, it is better to keep our languages and passively resist the introduction of “their language.” Plus Arabs will not take over, they merely will immigrate to an area and become the underclass of a society. There is no Arab military power threatening to take over.

The Chinese might invade, but the one child policy and their broken gender ratio will eventually catch up with them. Plus, I don’t think God will necessarily favor them, with their mandatory abortion programs.

Although, I have to admit Chinese (Cantonese) food is delicious and Arabic calligraphy is stunningly beautiful.

But I will stick to English, Spanish, Latin, Italian, French, Greek, German, Portuguese, Dutch/Afrikaans, Polish, Russian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Hungarian, Romanian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, Irish Gaelic, Scots Gaelic, Breton, Icelandic, etc. (No, I do not speak all these languages )

 

[bbarrick8383]

Here is the statement from the school district, which says in part:

mansfieldisd.org/departments/communications/news/10-11/february/arabicgrant.htm

The news article’s claim about “mandatory Arabic classes” seems to be erroneous.

From what I’m hearing on the Texas radio station, the parents are upset over “the early grades would have elements of Arabic language within the framework of the state-mandated curriculum.” portion of the whole deal.

The way it sounds, none of the parents were told that Arabic was going to become mandatory for elementary students to learn. This might have flown in San Francisco, but not Dallas.

 

[Sabda]

From what I’m hearing on the Texas radio station, the parents are upset over “the early grades would have elements of Arabic language within the framework of the state-mandated curriculum.” portion of the whole deal.

The way it sounds, none of the parents were told that Arabic was going to become mandatory for elementary students to learn. This might have flown in San Francisco, but not Dallas.

Yep, that quote smacks of “mandatory” to me. If we need any “mandatory” language classes it would be Spanish, not Arabic. However, I’m of a mind that secondary languages should be electives.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yep, that quote smacks of “mandatory” to me. If we need any “mandatory” language classes it would be Spanish, not Arabic. However, I’m of a mind that secondary languages should be electives.

I don’t see harm in making languages mandatory. However, I would agree that Spanish would be more useful for most Americans; perhaps French in the far northeast of the country.

Arabic? Maybe. But remember how vital it used to be (or seem) for kids to learn Russian? That was SO important because, after all, there were all the state department types and embassy types and, besides, the Soviet Union was the other dominant power in the world, and so naturally one needed to learn Russian.

But that has changed, drastically, as the importance of dealing with Russia changed. Right now it seems important to learn Arabic. After all, some Americans (fewer all the time) are in Iraq. Then there’s negotiating with all of those really important people in the Middle East who hate us whether we speak their language or not. It’s probably more useful for Lebanese, Egyptian, Iraqi and Palestinian Christians to learn English or French than it is for us to learn Arabic.

The time might be drawing close when we just basically can’t be in the Middle East safely at all in any capacity; when our government and businesses are essentially excluded from any real presence there; when China does all the oil dealing. Then what good will learning Arabic be?

Spanish seems more logical. So, for that matter, does French, German or even Polish, Hungarian, Swedish or Croatian. One can actually go to those places without being killed.

 

[Rolltide]

As a professor at a small private college in the South, I’ll tell you what two of the most useful languages are to learn right now… Arabic and Urdu. There is a woeful lack of American speakers of these languages in the military, government agencies, and private sector right now. In fact, the need is so great that some groups are giving a $20-$30,000 signing bonus for fluency. This is primarily due to anti-terrorism efforts and the war in Afghanistan, but the State Department and CIA are also in desperate need of these speakers. Further, with the UAE becoming a regional business hub, many businesses are in need of such linguists as well. If you speak one of these languages well, you’re almost guaranteed a job right now.

This is probably what their logic is…

 

[TheTrueCentrist]

In the US, it Spanish is more useful!

Interestingly, the Spanish language has many Arabic influences. For example, the Spanish word for “hope” is “ojalá” which is pronounced o-hala; it is derived from Allah, essentially meaning "God willing. The Arabic influences come out of the period when Spain was invaded by the Moors.

 

[Raskolnikov]

As a professor at a small private college in the South, I’ll tell you what two of the most useful languages are to learn right now… Arabic and Urdu. There is a woeful lack of American speakers of these languages in the military, government agencies, and private sector right now. In fact, the need is so great that some groups are giving a $20-$30,000 signing bonus for fluency. This is primarily due to anti-terrorism efforts and the war in Afghanistan, but the State Department and CIA are also in desperate need of these speakers. Further, with the UAE becoming a regional business hub, many businesses are in need of such linguists as well. If you speak one of these languages well, you’re almost guaranteed a job right now.

This is probably what their logic is…

Indeed. I live in a city with a few couple world famous hospitals, and we alway have sultans, shahs, and Middle Eastern oil barons coming here to get treatment. Translators therefore are in high demand at the hospitals, and the hourly rate for interpreters is quite impressive. Certainly worth learning a language or two.

 

[Sabda]

As a professor at a small private college in the South, I’ll tell you what two of the most useful languages are to learn right now… Arabic and Urdu. There is a woeful lack of American speakers of these languages in the military, government agencies, and private sector right now. In fact, the need is so great that some groups are giving a $20-$30,000 signing bonus for fluency. This is primarily due to anti-terrorism efforts and the war in Afghanistan, but the State Department and CIA are also in desperate need of these speakers. Further, with the UAE becoming a regional business hub, many businesses are in need of such linguists as well. If you speak one of these languages well, you’re almost guaranteed a job right now.

This is probably what their logic is…

And that kind of thinking would be completely wasted on elementary students. In 20 years the language that they need people fluent in will most likely be completely different. If you need people fluent in Arabic NOW than you need to be looking at college kids and high school students. Don’t look to the elementary students for this.

 

[Raskolnikov]

And that kind of thinking would be completely wasted on elementary students. In 20 years the language that they need people fluent in will most likely be completely different. If you need people fluent in Arabic NOW than you need to be looking at college kids and high school students. Don’t look to the elementary students for this.

This isn’t true at all. Most of the most useful languages today, like Spanish, German, French, Chinese, and Russian, have been spoken by many people for centuries and will continue to be. Granted, Russian will be comparably less important in 2050 than it was in 1950, and Arabic or Chinese might be comparably more important. But it’s not like there are always one or two languages we should all know at a given time and the rest are useless. Knowing any language spoken by many people will certainly be useful for a lifetime, as it isn’t likely any prominent people aroud today is going to disappear in the next 20 (or even 100) years.

And elementary school is exactly when students should start learning languages, as that is when it is easiest to learn them.

 

[Sabda]

This isn’t true at all. Most of the most useful languages today, like Spanish, German, French, Chinese, and Russian, have been spoken by many people for centuries and will continue to be. Granted, Russian will be comparably less important in 2050 than it was in 1950, and Arabic or Chinese might be comparably more important. But it’s not like there are always one or two languages we should all know at a given time and the rest are useless. Knowing any language spoken by many people will certainly be useful for a lifetime, as it isn’t likely any prominent people aroud today is going to disappear in the next 20 (or even 100) years.

And elementary school is exactly when students should start learning languages, as that is when it is easiest to learn them.

I never said learning another language was useless. It’s always good to know another language.

What I did say was teaching elementary students how to be fluent in a language where fluent speakers are needed NOW does not help the employers, military, CIA or FBI now. It might help them in the future if that language is still in great need. If you need a great number of fluent speakers for a particular language now than look to the young adults, not the children.

If the children chose to learn Arabic than let them. But let it be there choice. After all at that age, and we’re talking the 7-11 yr age group here, a lot can change by the time they have their college degrees and join the workforce. For all we know by the time they are ready to join the workforce, fluent speakers of Chinese might be the ones who are in great demand and not Arabic speakers.