Sunday, July 15, 2007
I was reminded of Franck Salameh's description of politicized Arabic language classes at Middlebury -- Arab Nationalism Run Rampant at Middlebury -- while reading this article on a new federally-funded Arabic language class at Charlestown High School: Speaking up. It sounds like a very good idea. We need more Arabic speakers.:
Speaking halting Arabic, students use Iraqi dinars to buy granola bars and chewing gum in a makeshift dukan. They occasionally feast on kebabs , falafels, and grape leaves as Lebanese music fills their classroom. They watch sexy dancers in Egyptian music videos performing moves they are surprised to see on something other than MTV.
For more than five hours a day, six days a week, the 29 Boston public school students are learning Arabic and studying Middle Eastern history, geography, and culture as part of a national initiative to ramp up the number of Arabic speakers. The new, federally funded program, which is in only eight schools nationwide, is shattering many stereotypes of the Middle East that the students gleaned from coverage of the war in Iraq.
Saturated by images of Muslims and Arabs as terrorists since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the students say they have the unique opportunity to adopt more expansive views of a volatile, oil-rich region that will only grow in importance...
...On July 7, the students visited the Islamic Society of Boston, a mosque in Cambridge's Central Square, where they sat in a circle on the carpet and learned about Islam from two mosque members. Peberlyn Moreta, 16, said she imagined that the women would be veiled head to toe, and was surprised to see only their heads covered...
Language...great. Culture? I'm all for exploding stereotypes, but just telling kids that "they're just like us, so don't worry" isn't preparing them for anything realistic. It is a huge mistake. Then there's this:
They giggled at the repeated scenes of a Palestinian woman holding hands with her lover. But the students quickly turned somber when their teacher, Lama Jarudi, delved into why some people martyr themselves in suicide bombings...
Oh my, would I like to hear the reasons given as to why...considering what's implied about Jarudi's background:
"They fear that I'm helping Americans train more spies," said Jarudi, who lived in Lebanon until age 9. "I feel quite the opposite. Anyone who learns the Arabic language inherently has to understand the culture a little bit."...
Hopefully she's not assuring them that she's not training new spies by telling them instead that she's indoctrinating the American kids. There isn't enough here to tell for sure, of course.
Apparently, language also comes with ideology. A bigoted and destructive ideology at that. Sigh...
Yes, the alarm bells went off..... ding-ding-ding....
http://misskelly.typepad.com/miss_kelly_/2007/07/teaching-arabic.html
On July 7, the students visited the Islamic Society of Boston, a mosque in Cambridge's Central Square...
Excuse me, but the mosque is in Occupied Inman Square. The internationally recognized border of Central Square has always ended at Koreana, or maybe Store 24.
Did you see this clip in the globe article, ""This program shows there's another side to the Middle East besides war and conflict," said Cameron Arroyo, a 17-year-old senior at Boston Latin School. "Not every Middle Eastern country is under an Islamic dictatorship"...
So, good, apparantly they also taught about Israel!
"So, good, apparantly they also taught about Israel!"
Not unless the teacher pointed out that the State of Israel is a transplanted vicious genocidal racist ethnocracy of the sort that was common in Eastern Europe during the 1920s and 1930s.
Joachim,
Is there a country that you admire?
curious,
Sudan would be my guess. Arab Muslims committing mass murder and brutal repression, arguably genocide, against black Muslims, also against black animists and Xians. Minimally, Sudan doesn't seem to command his attention, much less his more passionate and vituperative commentary.
Martillo wrote, "Not unless the teacher pointed out that the State of Israel is a transplanted vicious genocidal racist ethnocracy of the sort that was common in Eastern Europe during the 1920s and 1930s."
What are you talking about, exactly? Rather than propagating ethnocentric slurs, why don't you compare and contrast Israel's treatment of non-Jews with treatment of Jews or other non-Muslim non-Arab people and religious sites in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Afganistan, etc?