Although the local school district claims its plans are now "on hold," the Arabic "language and culture" classes were to be (and may still be) mandatory at an elementary school and an intermediate school in Mansfield, Texas (while optional for the older kids in middle school and high school).The classes would be brought to the kids courtesy of Uncle Sam and federal Education Department grants (link to full story at bottom), reportedly based upon Obama's Education Department ordaining from on high that Arabic is the "language of the future." And even if this plan doesn't go forward in Texas, you can bet it'll be pushed somewhere else. My reactions to this controversial story:
1. On these grants, why is Obama and our federal government looking at the Middle East and discriminating against the Persian language and culture in favor of the Arabs? Iran and "President" Ahmadinejad are not going to be happy about this. I thought the goal was to appease him, no? Two words: Oil. (And I don't want to even think what Spanish-ranting Hugo Chavez's reaction might be!)
2. You're really telling me that you're going to try to teach Arabic to Generations Y and Z? They've never learned English!
3. But seriously: If you're going to mandate that a language be taught in addition to English, then why would it not be the language that's spoken the most in the United States next to English – i.e. Spanish?
And if English and Spanish are both already mandatory in these Texas schools, then I think that's plenty in terms of mandatory language instruction. I mean, what’s next? Mandatory Sanskrit? There are only so many school hours in the day, after all, and many critical subjects beyond language to be taught.
Bottom line: Regardless of whether or not the Texas schools ultimately go through with their plan (and as stated, other locales will try the same thing), this is still an example of more of the wonderfully enlightened and wise use of your tax dollars by our illustrious federal government. It's little wonder that same government is $14.1 trillion in debt. Maybe next they can use federal grants to try to mandate what the school kids can eat for lunch. Oh wait…
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/02/07/mandatory-arabic-classes-coming-to-mansfield/
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