http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/...spx?id=1290896
A pro-family attorney in The Lone Star State says Washington bureaucrats are "meddling" in local education by "forcing" schools to teach students about the Arabic culture.
Parents in a North Texas school district are upset that they were not notified until after the fact about a plan to require all students in a couple of schools to learn Arabic culture. Officials with the Mansfield Independent School District apologized to outraged parents at a recent meeting for not informing them of a mandatory curriculum change at Kenneth Davis Elementary School and Cross Timbers Intermediate School.
Mansfield was one of five school districts in the country to receive the Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) Grant, which identifies Arabic as a "language of the future." The plan reportedly involves embedding Arabic culture in all facets of school activities, from discussing the Arabic roots of the word "algebra" to serving a Middle Eastern dessert at a class party. The Mansfield classes are part of a five-year, $1.3 million federal grant.
Kelly Shackelford, president and CEO of Liberty Institute, says Washington is obviously "forcing" onto a local school district something that was never part of the district's plan.
"In other words, the local board...was trying to develop a curriculum that was best for the children [and] this wasn't part of it," says the Christian attorney. "And so to change that -- because the federal government is trying to meddle -- I think is a big mistake.
"And that's what the parents are reacting to," he adds. "That's why they weren't notified of this, because it was never in the plans."
According to Shackelford, federal bureaucrats are inserting themselves into an arena best left to local decision-makers.
"Locally those school boards know what their kids need," he attests. "And the idea of some bureaucrat in Washington, DC, trying to influence local school districts and changing the curriculum for the kids towards something that they don't really even need -- and that they're going to have to take time away from things that are crucial and fundamental -- is exactly why we really shouldn't have education run from Washington, DC."
School officials, who deflected concerns that Arabic culture cannot be taught without including discussion of Islam, say the program is on indefinite hold while they start over -- this time involving parents. But Shackelford remains skeptical about what the curriculum will look like.
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Originally Posted by calgarian
