EDUCATION: The Arabic-English Curriculum Debate

In this week's Newsweek, there is an article titled "Speech Impediment" in the periscope section that discusses how, despite the fact that Arab-language programs are on the rise in the U.S., many public schools are facing criticism for including the language in their curriculum. Author Larraine Ali focuses her analysis on the controversy over the nation's first bilingual Arab-English public school, the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn, N.Y. and the criticism it is facing from an organization called the Madrassa Coalition.

The Madrassa Coalition claims that its mission is to halt radical Islamist agendas in curricula and believe that a tactic of our Islamic enemies is to use "education and the inculcation of children." In fact, Newsweek notes that their campaign attracted worldwide media coverage and was even able to pressure the school's Arab-American principal to step down. This was an interesting tactic on the part of the coalition because not only were they able to have major influence on one school, but they have also put fear in to the hearts and minds of every principal interested in starting Arabic-languages at their school.

An interesting thing to note, however, is that even despite such controversy, the "National Capital Language Resource center in D.C. estimates that the number of public schools offering full-time Arabic instruction for K-12 students has quadrupled from less than 10 in 2001 to more than 40 today." This goes to show that no matter how influential an organization like the Madrassa Coalition may seem, it is ultimately the public who will decide what and how they want to learn.

-Lisa Rassenti