Submitted by Pepper K., May 9, 2007 18:12

Haim,my initial comments were not directed toward you even though it showed up as a response to you. I was responding to the article in general. But, I'll ignore the subtle ad hominem attack. The benefits of bilingualism is well documented. I don't need to go into it here. I personally believe it would do well for Americans to learn any second language well. Second, my reaction is not knee-jerk. I read about the school in the New York Times and decided to educate myself on it. I've been watching the debate silently for a while and decided to speak out.

I speak as an educator who has worked in the New York city public school system. There are few children going to Barnes and Noble to pick up a book about Arabic culture besides the watered down version they teach in school history books. I believe our school system is incredibly lacking in teaching our children not only to learn about different cultures, but how to learn about different cultures. Wanna know what my students thought about different cultures? "Arabs just want to blow everything up, "Jews wear those funny hats and those curls", "Chinese people say ching chong ching chong"...etc. These are stereotypes in the media and they rarely are challenged among our youth of today. It's not about a cultural guilt trip. It's about education.

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