Mandatory Arabic Classes Coming To Mansfield

[CARLHAYDEN]

Mandatory Arabic Classes Coming To Mansfield

February 7, 2011

MANSFIELD (CBSDFW.COM) – Some Students at Mansfield ISD schools could soon be learning Arabic as a required language.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/02/07/mandatory-arabic-classes-coming-to-mansfield/

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Great idea.....when that grant runs out, make Spanish mandatory.

[Brittain33]

How much more effective would our intelligence, foreign policy, and defense capabilities be with American native Arabic speakers? Perhaps we'd be more on top of what's going on in Egypt. Don't you agree?

[rejectamenta]

I want to learn a new language, but not a scary new language!

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

I want to learn a new language, but not a scary new language!

Excuse me?

[DrScholl]

There's a lot of money in translating, so this makes sense.

[Landslide Lyndon]

How much more effective would our intelligence, foreign policy, and defense capabilities be with American native Arabic speakers? Perhaps we'd be more on top of what's going on in Egypt. Don't you agree?

Carl would prefer everybody learn the language of guns.

[ilikeverin]

Fantastic!   The earlier the better.

[rejectamenta]

I want to learn a new language, but not a scary new language!

Excuse me?

I'm joking, of course. Arabic is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, and any attempt to familiarize people with it is great. I'm just saying, it's clear what CARL's motives are when he posts yet another "scare" article: even something as innocent and positive as learning a language is an attempt by outsiders to erase or infiltrate the American identity.

[Iosif]

I'm fluent in Arabic.

Should I apply for a job at the CIA?

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

I'm fluent in Arabic.

Should I apply for a job at the CIA?

If you're not a terrorist, sure........CIA or FBI, DIA, NSA.....the alphabet soup, yeah. 

[angus]

Good idea.  The more languages a child learns, the more economic opportunities he'll have.  I think all school districts should require that students become proficient in at least one foreign language.  Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic are all good choices, but Arabic, in particular, is a language that our society needs need to better understand.  And in Mansfield's case it costs the district nothing, as it's paid for by a grant.  I guess we could argue about the aspect of federal funding of local schools, but apart from that I like the idea.

[fezzyfestoon]

Fantastic!   The earlier the better.

I echo this sentiment, of course.

It's about time we had more languages mandatory.  In this age where our national issues are geared more towards the Asian sphere, Arabic makes sense.  Mandarin could also be interesting and obviously Spanish.  I hope that by the time I'm raising kids, languages will be heavily emphasized in public school.  We have a habit of isolating ourselves culturally and I would love nothing more than for that to dissolve.  

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

CARL, what do you think about this?

[memphis]

My niece's kindergarten class teaches Japanese. Oh noes, the Tojos have infiltrated my family.

[cinyc]

How much more effective would our intelligence, foreign policy, and defense capabilities be with American native Arabic speakers? Perhaps we'd be more on top of what's going on in Egypt. Don't you agree?

What does that have to do with forcing children to learn Arabic without consent from their parents - as part of a plan that seems to have not been made subject to public comment until now, after the grant has been received and plans put into motion?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     While I agree that Arabic can be a very useful language to learn, I don't see the sense in forcing kids to learn that or any particular language other than English.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

How much more effective would our intelligence, foreign policy, and defense capabilities be with American native Arabic speakers? Perhaps we'd be more on top of what's going on in Egypt. Don't you agree?

What does that have to do with forcing children to learn Arabic without consent from their parents - as part of a plan that seems to have not been made subject to public comment until now, after the grant has been received and plans put into motion?

They're forced to learn math without their parents consent, cinyc.  Would you complain if it was French or Spanish, and not Arabic?

[fezzyfestoon]

What does this mean "force" them to learn something?  Is that not the essence of school?  What makes Arabic so much more objectionable than any other language let alone any other subject?  Is there really something particularly wrong about being "forced" to learn a language?  Are any curriculum changes fiercely opposed like this or run by the parents months before hand?  I don't know that I understand opposition to something like learning a language.  To be honest I don't understand opposition to learning anything other than clearly subjective information at a public school.

[angus]

I don't understand opposition to learning anything other than clearly subjective information at a public school.

you have to be careful with that term.  It's all subjective.  That Lincoln's suspension of habeus corpus was necessary to preserve the Union is only one interpretation.  And what did Shakespeare really mean when he had Othello change his attitude toward Desdemona?  Isn't your English teacher's interpretation necessarily subjective?  Does 1+1=2 always?  Only in certain base systems.  In binary, for example, 1+1=10.  And is flavor spelled that way on a spelling test?  Could it also be spelled flavour?  And when you have to show your work in algebra class, so that your teacher can try to see how you went about rescuing x from f, can he or she really determine where your thinking went wrong?  This requires some subjectivity as well.  And what about the interpretation of the mid-Atlantic ridge as evidence that the Americas and Africa were one large landmass at one time?  Or that a bone that looks a bit like a dinosaur's leg and a bit like a bird's leg mean that it belonged to the grandson of a dinosaur and the grandfather of a bird?  That's subjective indeed. 

That we are so keen on Chinese and Arabic at the moment only suggests that we can see into the future.  But can we really?  It may be that Portuguese will, when today's Kindergartners are 40 years old, have more economic importance than any of those languages.  Your reality is subject to your interpretation of it, and the collective reality is subject to the collective subjection.  We forget this sometimes, but it's important to remember.

That said, I'm in agreement that you gotta force children to study, otherwise they'll just play with Legos and snowballs and their penises all the time.  Nothing wrong with cracking the whip and saying, "Finish your arabic homework, young man, before you watch TV."   

[opebo]

Mansfield?  Where's that?  Mansfield Ohio?

Ok I think its in Texas, just looked it up.  I would think that for most students in either Ohio or Texas it would be more appropriate to teach them about how to change tires and fry hamburgers, maybe use a cash register.  Or are these some kind of elite very upper-middle class children?  Presumably.

[Gustaf]

Swedish children are forced to learn English. You do get to pick whether you want to be forced to learn Spanish, French or German though. And in some cases other languages too.

[angus]

are these some kind of elite very upper-middle class children?

Probably.  Mansfield is in Tarrant County, which is one of the larger ones (2 million or so people in Tarrant County.)  I've passed through mansfield a few times when I was living in Arlington, and recall that it's fairly white-collar.  City-data.com gives it a median household income significantly above the state average and a median house value significantly above the state average and an unemployment rate which is rather low.  

But affluent or not, it behooves all children to learn about the world beyond their immediate culture.  They should learn some foreign language, if not Arabic.  Granted, Spanish might be more immediately gratifying to students in the DFW area, but Arabic is useful and gives them an economic benefit as well.  One cannot pick up a Wall Street Journal without references to some arabic-speaking country.  And you are well aware that a huge chunk of our aggregate GDP is committed to peacekeeping in two countries, one of which is arabic-speaking and the other of which has an ethnoreligious propensity such that most educated men there can read at least some arabic.  And we are witnessing markets emerging from the rubble of insurgency in North African and middle Eastern states.  The children in those states will one day grow up needing to do business with folks who can teach them to operate ipods and to build highways and to like fast food and reality television.  

[Iosif]

How much more effective would our intelligence, foreign policy, and defense capabilities be with American native Arabic speakers? Perhaps we'd be more on top of what's going on in Egypt. Don't you agree?

What does that have to do with forcing children to learn Arabic without consent from their parents - as part of a plan that seems to have not been made subject to public comment until now, after the grant has been received and plans put into motion?

Next thing you know they'll be forcing maths and science on our kids as well...

[patrick1]

How much more effective would our intelligence, foreign policy, and defense capabilities be with American native Arabic speakers? Perhaps we'd be more on top of what's going on in Egypt. Don't you agree?

What does that have to do with forcing children to learn Arabic without consent from their parents - as part of a plan that seems to have not been made subject to public comment until now, after the grant has been received and plans put into motion?

Next thing you know they'll be forcing maths and science on our kids as well...

Not to worry Iosif, we stopped doing that a long time ago...