Charter School App Lies

Published on August 2022 | Categories: Documents | Downloads: 2 | Comments: 0 | Views: 47
of x
Download PDF   Embed   Report

Comments

Content

 

Tikun Olam Hebrew Language Charter High School application’s misrepresentation of expert quotes In 2008, the National Security Language Initiative (NSLI) released a report titled "Enhancing Foreign Language Proficiency In the United States, Preliminary Results of The National Security Language Initiative." The mission of the NSLI, from U.S. Department of Education website and the NSLI report: "In January 2006, President Bush announced the National Security Language Initiative (NSLI), an interagency effort coordinated by the White House to dramatically increase the number of Americans learning, speaking, and teaching critical need foreign languages. Foreign language skills are essential to engaging foreign governments and peoples, especially in critical world regions, to promote understanding, convey respect for other cultures, and encourage reform. These skills are also fundamental to the economic competitiveness and security interests of the nation. "The Secretaries of State, Education, and Defense and the Director of National Intelligence launched this comprehensive and coordinated national initiative with new programs and resources to expand U.S. critical foreign language education beginning in kindergarten and continuing through elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education and into the workforce." The analysis presented in a December 2008 article from United Press International  (UPI),  (UPI), titled "ANALYSIS: U.S. must strengthen foreign language education," was in complete agreement with the findings in the NSLI report. In the application of Tikun Olam Hebrew Language Charter High School, quotes from this UPI article are cherry picked to make it appear that this this article, and by extensi extension on the NSLI report, placed Hebrew among among the languages considered important to American interests, although neither the article nor the NSLI report included Hebrew among the languages they listed. The languages listed in the NSLI report are “Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian languages and the Indic, Persian, and Turkic language families.” The languages listed in the UPI article were Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Japanese, Russian, and Urdu. In its application, under the heading "Learning Hebrew is Valuable for America," the Tikun Olam founders f ounders quote the UPI article, prefacing the article quotes with this statement: "The following analysis shows the connection  between learning Hebrew and our our nation's vital interests." interests." The article, however, show showss no such connection. One of the Tikun Olam founders’ primary claims to justify the necessity and benefits of a Hebrew language charter school is that businesses in the United States, and particularly in New Jersey, have a very high, and growing, number of business relationships with Israeli companies. This, however, is a completely spurious argument, as the official business language of Israel is English, not Hebrew. In fact, a number of websites that  provide advice to those those doing business internationally internationally make a point point of specifically instructing instructing Americans doing  business in Israel to provide provide all materials and give al alll presentations in English. English. As seen in the following side-by-side side-by-side comparison of the quotes from the Tikun Olam application and the actual UPI article, the Tikun Olam founders carefully cherry-picked quotes from the article, omitting all references to the countries and languages that the article actually did refer to. Then, to further the erroneous impression that this article supports their claim that Hebrew is considered a language vital to America's interests, they inserted, in  brackets, the words "including "including a major role for Israel," although the article made no reference whatsoev whatsoever er to Israel. The only countries mentioned in the article were China and India.

 

From the Tikun Olam application (pages 1-18 and 1-19):  

Relevant quotes from the UPI article omitted by the Tikun Olam founders in their application:

Learning Hebrew is Valuable for America

The following analysis shows the connection between learning Hebrew and our nation's vital interests: "Unless America pumps up foreign language education, both the nation's  global competitiveness competitiveness and national  security could be at risk. risk. That's the opinion of a cross-section of experts concerned that a weakened economy and heightened international tensions leave the nation in need of clearer communication with friend and foe alike.  Deficiencies in Middle Middle Eastern and Asian Asian languages pose the most immediate  problems. "If the U.S., in the modern world, is going to maintain its position as a global leader it's going to have to become more conversant," said Ken Gude, a former Center for National Security Studies policy analyst.  David Gray, former Labor Department Department acting assistant secretary for policy, said one thing is certain to emerge from the retooling of the worldwide financial  system - greater global challenges challenges to  America's economic dominance. It used to be that the United States could skate by with workers who spoke only English because they sold to a more concentrated customer base and the quality of their  products was superior, Mr. Gray said. Technology and globalization are also boosting the number of players in competitive markets [including a major role for Israel], putting the United States at a further disadvantage with countries where workers grow up learning multiple languages. Various agencies involved in national  security, including including the Defense and State State departments and the CIA, try to combat  America's lack of critical critical language  proficiency with with their own training  programs for translators, interpreters interpreters and other officials who need these skills. "It's necessary and important for the intelligence agencies to have late-stage intensive training but that's just a Band Aid."

An estimated 200 million school-aged children in China study English, according to a 2006 Education Departmen Departmentt release. Just 24,000 of their U.S. counterparts study Chinese languages. The gap is significant.

But now that countries like India are closing the quality gap offering products that are equally good or better - U.S.  businesses are forced to to adopt new strategi strategies. es. "In a more competitive market where products are increasing in quality we need to be able to compete on relationships and service, (and) languages are an important factor," said Mr. Gray, who now works at the New America Foundation, a Washington-based Washington-base d think tank.

 [These bracketed words, “including a major role for Israel,” were inserted here by the Tikun Olam founders to baselessly imply that  Israel would be among the nations where a language l anguage gap is of concern to the experts quoted in the article.]

"The communication and technology revolutions make it imperative that we be able to communicate with people who don't speak English (primarily)," Mr. Gray said. "To make a sale, you have a great disadvantage if your competitor speaks the language of the customer and you don't."

[Clearly, the above statement about the ability to communicate with  people who don’t speak speak English would not appl applyy to Israel, where the official business language is English.] English.]  

Less than half of American high school students are enrolled in foreign language classes, according to the 2002 Digest of Education Statistics, released by the Education Department in 2006. Of those students, the overwhelming majority are enrolled in Spanish, and less than 1 percent combined study Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Japanese, Russian or Urdu.

 

A second article quoted in the Tikun Olam application (page 1-4) is a January 12, 2010 New 2010 New York Times op-ed Times op-ed titled “The Tel Aviv Cluster." Again, the Tikun Olam founders, in their attempt to make it appear that that teaching American students Hebrew will somehow enhance business relationships with Israeli companies, are misrepresenting what the author of the article actually said. In this case, they simply omit the author’s opinion (as it was an op-ed) on the future direction of Israeli businesses. Here is what the Tikun Olam application says: “Israel has been a global leader in the introduction of new technologies. Conservative columnist David Brooks wrote in the New York Times that: ‘...Tel Aviv has become one of the world’s foremost entrepreneurial hot spots. Israel has more high-tech  start-ups per capita capita than any other nation nation on earth, by far. It leads leads the world in civil civilian ian research-anddevelopment spending per capita. It ranks second behind the U.S. in the number of companies listed on the Nasdaq. Israel, with seven million people, attracts as much venture capital as France and Germany combined...’” What the Tikun Olam founders omit is that Mr. Brooks ended his op-ed by pointing out the likelihood of Israelis coming to America to do business, rather than Americans going to Israel to do business. “The tech boom also creates a new vulnerability. As Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic has argued, these innovators are the most mobile people on earth. To destroy Israel’s economy, Iran doesn’t actually have to lob a nuclear weapon into the country. It just has to foment enough instability so the entrepreneurs decide they had better move to Palo Alto, where many of them already have contacts and homes. American Jews used to keep a foothold in Israel in case things got bad here. Now Israelis keep a foothold in the U.S.”

Given the above examples of deception in the Tikun Olam charter application, two important questions must be asked: 1.) If the founders of Tikun Olam Hebrew Language Charter High School had been able to find any expert opinions that really did support their position that there is a "connection between learning Hebrew and our nation's vital interests," why did they have to resort to misrepresenting what the experts quoted in the United Press International were actually saying, and cherry-pick a quote from an op-ed that, when read in its entirely, tends to argue against their position? And; 2.) Do we really want anyone who has exhibited the level of intellectual dishonest dishonesty y displayed by the founders of Tikun Olam in their blatant misrepresentation of these articles to be entrusted with the education of our students?

Analysis prepared by Chris Rodda Senior Research Director, Military Religious Freedom Foundation;  Huffington Post  blogger;  blogger; and Highland Park Resident

Sponsor Documents

Or use your account on DocShare.tips

Hide

Forgot your password?

Or register your new account on DocShare.tips

Hide

Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive a link to create a new password.

Back to log-in

Close