Smoke And Mirrors

February 8, 2011 by Daphne

We’ve all seen the little monsters, incendiary stories featured on blogs or news sites that virtually guarantee massive head explosions. All it takes is a politically divisive topic, one catchy headline, a bit of hyperbolic commentary, rich content filled with inaccurate, sloppy reporting and we’re raising our sharpened pitchforks.

Today it’s Mansfield ISD and a FLAP grant. Before I get too far, I ought to warn you that I’m one of those state’s rights freaks who firmly wishes the Department Of Education would be abolished, eradicated, swept into the dustbin of horrible mistakes best forgotten and never repeated. Keep that in mind, as you read along.

A DOE foreign language grant was awarded to this northern Texas school district after the administrators submitted a proposal to start an elective Arabic language class in two schools that would run concurrent from seventh through twelfth grade. That’s it. That’s the whole story. Not much there to get excited about, a small, elective foreign language class for students in one middle school and one high school.

You wouldn’t know this if you trusted the version rolled out by the incompetent MSM or certain Muslim-centric schtick bloggers. They have propagated a fallacious story about mandatory cultural studies, Arabic immersion in all subjects for the entire student body, a district wide pilot program to push an insidious islamic agenda (masterminded by Obama) down the throats of innocent, upper-class, suburban white Baptists. They’re having conniption fits over Middle Eastern desserts possibly being served at school parties. Holy smoke, it’s a wonder my sixth grade Spanish class got away with serving tacos at our parties before we happily beat a pinata to shreds while singing La Cucaracha at full bellow.

Mansfield, Texas is an exurb of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex, a wealthy one at that. It is predominately white, well-educated, conservative, church-going and family oriented. It also happens to feature the second largest growing school district in the state, boasting well above average academic standards. These particular Texas parents aren’t ignorant, naive or liberal by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, they appear to be well vested in their children’s educational outcomes if a glance at their property tax rate is any indication and, so far, other than legitimate concerns about potential religious content, they seem to be open to an Arabic language class and even a cultural studies elective in their upper grades. As one father noted, it’s an opportunity to obtain a rare skill that has valuable marketplace demand.

There are many substantive issues and legitimate complaints to discuss concerning Obama’s governance, the wretched Department of Education and Islam in America.

This isn’t one of them.

Posted in 2011, Current events | Tagged Arabic language classes, DOE FLAP grant, Mansfield ISD | 32 Comments

32 Responses

on February 8, 2011 at 11:14 pm Jewel

I left comments at the CBS page, and boy did my mailbox fill up. Most of my comments were neither pro or con, but to point out that in teaching Arabic, it is impossible to teach the language separate from teaching Islam, since religion imbues every aspect of the language. Also, the language isn’t Arabic but Modern Standard Arabic – a concoction spoken only by newscasters which is based upon classical Arabic found in the Koran.
It would be great to learn a necessary language like Arabic, and it is certainly possible to do so on your own, I did, in fact, do just that. The resources for the resourceful are abundant and excellent, without having to spend 500 bucks on Rosetta Stone.
The problem arises with impressionable young minds. If, for one moment, I thought that teaching the fartlings Arabic would guarantee a broad and accurate view of the history, language, literature and diversity of peoples often wrongly lumped together as all Arabs, then I wouldn’t have a problem with an elective. But it isn’t that way at all. One of the biggest problems in teaching Arabic at the university level has been the blatant, Islamic indoctrination of students by their professors of Arabic. And with that comes the vile Jew hatred, Christian hatred and anyone not of the Ummah hatred. The distortion of history through Arabist and Islamist perspectives is rancid as it is rampant.

Now, having said all that, some of the sheer ugliness and ignorance on display – both by the journalists who misreported the story and the reaction by the readers to it – is simply astounding.
on February 8, 2011 at 11:17 pm vanderleun

I’m promoting you to Official BS Early Warning System on this and similar stories in you neck of the woods.
on February 8, 2011 at 11:42 pm Newbius

Gee, I wonder if this isn’t a sneaky attempt at raising people who can understand al-jazeera without the PC translation…

I know that I would like to hear with my own ears and understand with my own brain what they were saying. Call it opposition research if it eases your troubles. ;)

Cheers!
on February 8, 2011 at 11:46 pm westsoundmodern

I read this report earlier today and being that this is Texas, it didn’t smell quite right. My dad’s side of the family is a bunch of Okie Baptists and they just aren’t the kind of people who would lay back and let the federal government impose Sharia law. The report would have been followed shortly by another one describing the tarring and feathering of the entire city council and school board. I figured it must have been something a bit less “sinister”.
on February 8, 2011 at 11:52 pm westsoundmodern

Nice call on the Steelers by the way.
Maybe you wimmins should stick to fetchin’ us beer and chips during the game. ;-)
on February 9, 2011 at 12:10 am Stoney

French- Once the International Language. Could still be useful.

German-To study advanced sciences and engineering.

Chinese- The most widely spoken language.

Spanish- To cope with the wave of immigrants.

Arabic -Language and culture makes perfect sense.

In lieu of the Pledge of Allegiance..The Muslim Call to Prayer

And our children will sing:
on February 9, 2011 at 12:39 am Daphne

Jewel, I agree that there is a level of secular difficulty that comes with teaching this particular language and culture to public school students, but it’s not the screaming boogie man armageddon most are making it out to be.

There is nothing wrong or pro-islamist with a class full of American students learning Arabic. Our oil companies, Haliburton, Brown and Root, the military, CIA and state department are fully involved with the Middle East, what in the world is wrong with any school district taking advantage of a federal grant that might boost their student’s abilities to earn a living in that lucrative realm?

A whole lot of Texans I know spent time working in the M.E., they didn’t care for the countries or culture, but they sure did like the money.
on February 9, 2011 at 12:42 am OhioDude

Thanks for the update

Otherwise I’d think that Muzz refusenik cabbies were turning down blind-fares w/ seeing eye dogs in al-Minneapolis – St. Paul airport, or that hijabbed sharia-lovin’ women were refusing to scan bacon in same Muzz enclave in dearly-departed Minnesota.

Or that footbaths were being installed on college campuses for Presbyterians .. wait ! … mybad … Mooselimbs. Or that Somali “youths” were disappearing from American metro centers and coming back after a lil’ jihad summercamp to work for the betterment of Dar al-Harb

Or that that women-lovin’ Sharia Law was being lobbyed for in the various Muzz enclaves here in TRFKAA[ the Republic Formerly Known as America]

I’m relieved now. BTW, does “Jaded” stand for clueless ?
on February 9, 2011 at 12:42 am Daphne

Thanks Gerard. I try to keep it real.
on February 9, 2011 at 12:45 am Daphne

Nice OD.

Good to know you’re keeping up with America’s scary takeover by the radical infidel.

I’ll sleep safer tonight.
on February 9, 2011 at 12:50 am Uncle Kenny

Boy, it makes my ass tired that these folks, who are nominally on the same side of most arguments as I am, will exaggerate and distort to the point of lying in their misguided zeal to move opinion.

That kind of disdain for the truth in the service of a cause is something we have come to expect of our enemies and is not helpful in getting us where we want to be.

I have a special category in my Google Reader called “right wing nuthouse” that is reserved for these idiots that just go too far. And by “too far” I mean into lies not zeal.

I’ll take a Billy Beck or a Karl Denninger who think its “go time” for a civil war over these mealy mouthed liars any day.
on February 9, 2011 at 12:54 am Daphne

Hear Hear, Kenny.

Yo, Mark – fuck you, good buddy ;-) The Steelers would have been golden if Ben hadn’t been off kilter.
on February 9, 2011 at 1:02 am Jewel

But you wouldn’t have known how reasonable it would have sounded from reading the article and the comments.
on February 9, 2011 at 1:10 am Daphne

I most certainly would have heard and understood your reasonable, intelligent, articulate response, Jewel.

Let’s face it, most people aren’t all that bright or perceptive.
on February 9, 2011 at 1:34 am Stoney

Hello, international operator ..Dearborn Michigan here..

need to place a call to Paris France and London England,
then Amsterdam and Madrid.

Thanks for your patients and understanding, you are so kind.
on February 9, 2011 at 1:39 am Daphne

Stoney, come on.

This story doesn’t rise to the occasion.
on February 9, 2011 at 1:40 am Stoney

Daphne,

listen to the drip, drip, drip.
on February 9, 2011 at 2:05 am westsoundmodern

Roethlesberger was born off kilter and Benjamin is no name for a quarterback. A Rabbi maybe…or a kicker.
on February 9, 2011 at 2:39 am Daphne

Darlin’ Mark, I happen to disagree.

Biblical names are wildly powerful, very manly in a quarterback kind of way.

You ought to posses some sense of that perspective, given your traditional handle.

Roth just needs a good minder. The man seems to have a hard time getting a grip on his baser instincts and quelling his odd inclinations to engage in activities that look somewhat suicidal.
on February 9, 2011 at 2:40 am Daphne

I don’t get the drip, Stoney.
on February 9, 2011 at 2:56 am Stoney

No Thanks
on February 9, 2011 at 3:09 am Daphne

I beg your pardon.

Seriously, I’m missing your point, Stoney. Could you be a little less obtuse.
on February 9, 2011 at 3:50 am Stoney

I will try :
on February 9, 2011 at 3:58 am lancedeboyle

My two cents. Used to be much less, but inflation….

Given that at least 50 million of our Arabic speaking friends would like to see us dead, it makes sense to bet that this is bad, and find out that isn’t, then to bet that it’s benign and find out (too late) that is wasn’t.

Any reason for suspicions?

1. Public educators are more often then not pie-faced knee-jerk kumbaya humming douche bags.

I am confident that the good folks at Mansfield ISD do not see Islam as an enemy ideology. They probably believe that international conflict can be overcome by mutual understanding. If you said, “They understand that your quest for mutual understanding represents weakness,”
they would not get it.

“Huh?”

In other words, they are bereft of clue and see only the money and feel the good vibes of self-congratulations.

2. Check the slide show….

http://www.mansfieldisd.org/curriculum/foreign-language/pdf/Arabic_BoardPresentation_Dec2010.pdf

Also…

“What does the 100 minutes per week look like?
Students will receive an average of 20 minutes per day of Arabic language and culture through
social studies classes, advisory once a week and intermittently in electives such as technology
applications, art and P.E.”

http://www.mansfieldisd.org/curriculum/foreign-language/pdf/ArabicStudiesFAQ.pdf

3. Past FLAP grants for Arabic….. Wait for it!

Acquiring Arabic
The school district of Dearborn,
Michigan proposes to teach Arabic as a
foreign language in two schools, expanding
one current K-5 program and establishing a new
program for students in grades 4-8 at another school….

http://www.languagepolicy.org/documents/grants/Richey_FLAP%20brochure.pdf

Gee, must have been random chance that Dearborn got one.

This is more than just a course on a foreign language. They are going to “infuse” the curriculum (via “social studies”—not taught by the best and brightest) with Arabiana.

“Cross-cultural competency”?

Global 21st century citizenry. That’s eduspeak for “We are all one. No culture is better than any other. If we mistrust Islam, it means that WE are ethnocentric.”

In other words, the politically correct understanding of Islam.

4. When was this infusing ever done when teaching Spanish or German?

Never. You took the course; that was it. They had nothing about Hispanic or Germanic culture infusing the curriculum.

How do you spell Trojan horse?

If they were serious about increasing the number of arabic-speaking professionals, then have teachers and others take intensive courses in the summers.

Costs less than 1.5 million bucks.

The blogs may have gotten the details wrong, but their suspicions, I believe, are well founded.
on February 9, 2011 at 11:16 am Daphne

Those elementary school plans have been shelved, Lance. The parents weren’t too keen on the idea.

Language Infusion is done in some select elementary schools for Spanish here in Texas. I think it’s being done in some of the Mansfield campuses, which is probably the template they were using for their Arabic grant.

I’m quite sure that your assessment about professional educators is accurate. The curriculum is most likely ill conceived, overpriced and full of bullshit. I have no doubt that the DoE is pushing a social agenda.
on February 9, 2011 at 11:22 am Daphne

Here’s the kind of public school story that actually does make my head explode;

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/investigations/kxan-investigates-super-salaries
on February 9, 2011 at 11:44 am pdwalker

Watching that second video from Stoney fills me with anger.
on February 9, 2011 at 11:45 am pdwalker

(oh, uh, offtopic I guess… nevermind)
on February 9, 2011 at 12:57 pm Uncle Kenny

Roughly 25 years ago, at a lovely little private school over which we parents had a reasonable amount of control, there was a movement to have more practical foreign languages taught. At that time, we were pushing for Spanish and Japanese, based on communicating with the kitchen help and the imminent takeover by the Japanese economic titans. (How foolish we were in the 80′s.)

Anyway our efforts did not succeed because the majority of parents opted for French. Their reasons varied but mostly came down to either they took French at Vasser or they liked cheese and Daniel Auteuil.

Today, of course, it’s Chinese and Arabic. There’s always survival value in learning the language or your would-be oppressors.

I wanted Latin.
on February 9, 2011 at 4:51 pm vanderleun

Was that Latin as in “the Swiss Army Knife of Romance Languages,” or Latino as in “Mi barrio es su barrio.”
on February 9, 2011 at 7:44 pm Uncle Kenny

Dominus vobiscum, Et cum spiritu tuo, esai.
on February 12, 2011 at 1:59 pm Forcing The Plant | Spleenville

[...] February 12: Daphne says it’s an elective, and that the article here is basically a lie. Okay. She doesn’t link to anything that proves [...]

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