SAN DIEGO – Carver Elementary School in San Diego has long been a microcosm of the world’s diversity, serving immigrants from Vietnam, Cambodia, Egypt and Somalia, among other places.
Now it hosts the San Diego Unified School District’s only Arabic language program – one that is being scrutinized in the wake of a substitute teacher’s complaint that it is a form of “religious indoctrination.”
Carver’s program, which serves students in kindergarten through eighth grade, includes single-sex classes and an afternoon recess to allow time for prayer to accommodate students’ cultural and religious needs.
The district is investigating the teacher’s allegations, but school officials say they have been careful not to violate the law setting up the program.
The merger of Arabic and public school cultures began in September when a defunct charter school and its predominantly Somali Muslim students moved to Carver, impressed by the district’s desire to embrace its students and staff.
The merger is an example of district efforts to offer culturally relevant and academically unique programs to lure students back from charter and private schools. Superintendent Carl Cohn said his priority is to make district schools competitive.
“The goal is to give our parents a wide array of options – high-quality options – in the district,” Director of School Choice Kyo Yamashiro said. “Both for competition’s sake and because we are losing enrollment, we want to be able to bring students back into the district.”
The strategy appears to be working. Carver, which not long ago was losing students, has gained about 115, drawing them from as far away as Chula Vista and El Cajon. Carver now has about 415 students.
Carver Principal Kimberlee Kidd wants to create a magnet program that would attract students from throughout the district. Her goal is to build something similar to the foreign-language programs at schools such as Spreckels and Longfellow. She believes it would appeal to non-Arabic and non-Muslim families.
“For more-affluent families who are trying to figure out what is the cutting edge for the future, they may purposely direct their children to learn Arabic for its commercial value,” Kidd said.
Arabic speakers are in demand as translators, international bankers, political analysts, foreign service officers and government relations managers for oil companies.
Eighth-grader Brian Ogden, who transferred from another school to learn Arabic at Carver, is well aware of the language’s value.
“For my future, it will help me get a better job. Two languages are better than one,” he said.
Arabic instruction historically has been available at universities, and mosques and Islamic schools, where the faithful study the language to read the Koran.
But the federal government is pushing to expand Arabic instruction in public schools. Many believe understanding the Middle East and Islam is critical to America’s national security.
Districts as disparate as New Haven Public Schools in Connecticut, Dearborn Public Schools in Michigan, and the Mid-Prairie Community School District in Iowa are starting or beefing up their Arabic language programs. Universities also are stepping up efforts to create credentialing programs to train teachers to teach Arabic.
“There’s a lot of students interested in Arabic,” said Hanada Taha-Thomure, Arabic program director for the Language Acquisition Resource Center at San Diego State University.
It hasn’t been cheap or easy for Carver to absorb a charter school. The district has spent $450,000 to cover extra costs associated with the Arabic program.
Carver has had to adjust to accommodate the cultural, religious and linguistic needs of the charter students. The cafeteria menu, for example, was tweaked to ensure students have daily access to foods that don’t contain pork or other ingredients that Muslims don’t eat.
And Carver created a new class schedule to make time for Arabic instruction and voluntary prayers. An extra afternoon recess period allows time to pray.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, students may pray during recess “to the same extent that they may engage in nonreligious activities.”
School officials believe that the law is clear on the issue of prayers, but they are still working to integrate the Muslim students with the rest of the campus.
The charter students and the original Carver students – about 300 – are still mostly separate. Each school has its own schedule. Kidd said Carver found out only days before school began that a charter would be relocating there, she had little time to plan.
“The goal is to realign so that there isn’t a feeling of two schools,” she said.
Efforts have already been made to bring the staffs and students together through sharing of ethnic food and holiday traditions.
The school’s winter holiday celebration featuring multicultural performances was a big hit. African-American, American, Muslim and other traditions were celebrated.
“Carver has always been sensitive to the different cultures and always looked at the variety of cultures we have as an enrichment, not a problem,” teacher Pamela de Meules said.
Kidd said she and her staff had expected questions about the Arabic program when the schools merged. But people were tolerant, she said. So it surprised her someone would complain now when “things are settling down and feeling right.”