BOERUM HILL — Brooklyn’s planned Khalil Gibran International Academy, named for the peace-loving Lebanese-American poet and philosopher, is designed to build bridges between cultures and promote greater understanding. But the very idea of a school with an Arab theme has triggered questions and even hostility both online and in print, as detailed in past issues of the Brooklyn Eagle.
Now, a group calling itself the Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition has sent a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request letter to Governor Eliot Spitzer, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the New York State Board of Regents, Chancellor Joel Klein and other city and state officials.
The letter requests release of fourteen categories of documents concerning the Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA), slated to open September 2007 in Brooklyn.
In a press release sent to this paper, Sara Springer, a Brooklyn resident who is a member of the coalition, said: “To date, despite numerous requests, the City has provided no explanation to members of the coalition or the public at large about the precise nature of the curricula, the text books that will be used, the publishers of those texts, or the lesson plans. Further, no one from the City has provided information about the selection process of the teachers for the ‘Arabic’ and ‘Middle Eastern’ subjects, whether they will be certified, and if not, how they will be effectively supervised. We demand to know why.”
Melody Meyer, spokesperson for the New York City Department of Education, addressed some of the issues brought up by the group yesterday.
“The school has chosen from curricula that has been approved and designated for New York City public schools,” she told the Eagle. “For math, they’ve ordered Impact Math; for science, they’ve chosen Option C, published by Harcourt. In humanities, they’re using the Social Studies Module approved for the 6th grade. They’re also using the Teachers’ College Reading and Writing Workshops, and they’ve ordered the Arabic Language Library from Scholastic, which translates English children’s books into Arabic.”
In a nutshell, “They’re using the same curriculum packages as other New York City public schools,” Meyer said.
As to the teacher certification question, Meyer said that Principal Debbie Almontaser has been “hiring teachers through the summer. She’s hired two Arab-Americans, plus Irish, Greek, Jewish and West Indian teachers — certainly a diverse group.”
All of the teachers are certified, Meyer said. While New York State “doesn’t offer certificates in Arab-language instruction, all of the teachers are certified including the Arab-language teachers — one in math, the other in humanities.”
The ‘Islamist Ties’ Issue
The Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition also raised questions about the “Islamist ties” of the principal and members of the Board of Advisors for the KGIA school, and questions that fact that many of the school’s advisors have religious affiliations.
The release quotes Chancellor Joel Klein as saying, “If any school became a religious school, as some people say Khalil Gibran would be, or it became a national school, in the sense that it really wasn’t an American public school, I would shut it down.”
Said Springer said, “KGIA is clearly both a religious school and a school with a one-sided political ideology. Keep your promise, Mr. Klein. Shut down the Khalil Gibran International Academy now, before it opens.”
DOE’s Meyer responded to this by saying, “The advisory board, in this case, is not affecting the curriculum or instruction. Now that she knows where the school will be sited, the principal has reached out to political and other kinds of community leaders,” such as the local councilman. Principal Almontaser chose many religious leaders for the school’s advisory board initially “because she has experience in building cross-cultural bridges through religious leaders,” said Meyer. “They can speak to their community members and explain how the school benefits the community.”
Not the First Group To Question the Concept
When the idea of an Arab-themed school was first broached, critics across the country came out strongly against it, claiming the school would become a hotbed for Jihadism.
The oft-quoted PipelineNews.org set off an outcry among its readers with an article called “New York Set to Open a Public Jihad School.” In it, author Daniel Pipes claims that “imbuing pan-Arabism and anti-Zionism, proselytizing for Islam, and promoting Islamist sympathies will predictably make up the school’s true curriculum.”
Even the New York Sun ran a column against the school, entitled “Madrassa Plan Is Monstrosity.” This, however, doesn’t faze the school’s supporters, who see the criticism as a reason why the school is necessary. “It’s a school for everyone,” Lena Alhusseini, executive director of the Arab American Family Support Center, told the Brooklyn Eagle in May. The Arab American Family Support Center is the lead community sponsor of Khalil Gibran.
“The more people learn about what the vision of the school is, the more they see it has nothing to do with politics. It’s about tolerance, giving students a new language skill they can use in many international fields such as finance, and giving them a rigorous education. It’s for everyone. It wouldn’t succeed if it weren’t diverse.”
