First the good news: Dhabah “Debbie” Almontaser yesterday quit as principal-designate of the city’s new Arabic-themed public school - though not without blaming her resignation mostly on The Post (not by name, of course).
But here’s the bad news: The Department of Education says it still plans to open the Khalil Gibran International Academy. And Almontaser herself will remain on the DOE payroll in an undetermined role.
After she defended the sale of T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Intifada NYC,” and then issued a quasi-apology that only made things worse, it was inevitable that Almontaser would have to step down as head of the Arabic academy she’d first proposed.
Her words had brought a sharp rebuke from, among others, teachers-union head Randi Weingarten (until then a strong supporter of the Gibran school), who said, “Parents and teachers have a right to be concerned” about a school run by someone who didn’t seem to understand the difference between “peace and war-mongering.”
Chancellor Joel Klein’s office refuses to release Almontaser’s resignation letter. (Why not? Did she write something that would embarrass the department even further?)
But it did issue a statement attributed to Almontaser in which she complained, “This week’s headlines were endangering the viability of Khalil Gibran International Academy, even though I apologized.”
That is, she’s blaming the media - in this case, Post reporters Chuck Bennett and Jana Winter and this page - for reporting and commenting on her foolishness.
Now she’s been severed from any connection to the Gibran Academy, according to DOE. So what useful role can she continue to serve at the Department of Education?
As for the school itself, we continue to believe that it’s a bad idea - one that runs counter to the notion of public education, which should be about pluralism, not self-segregation and separatism.
City Hall continues to defend the school: Deputy Mayor Dennis Wolcott yesterday insisted it’s meant to “prepare students for the global community” by “exposing them to different cultures in our city and the world.”
Indeed, he pointed to the fact that the city has more than 60 schools that focus on a single language and culture, including French, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Korean and Greek.
Now, why the French, Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Korean and Greek kids aren’t immersed in English and American culture - remember the Melting Pot? - remains a mystery.
Beyond that, however, Almontaser said the Gibran Academy is meant to focus primarily on the need for “creating cultural understanding of the complexity of Arab history and the diversity of Arab culture.”
We don’t have a problem with teaching students Arabic language, or even Arabic culture and history - as part of a regular public-school curriculum.
But we think it’s wrong-headed to create an entire public school, supported by taxpayer dollars, that stresses a single language and culture - one aimed principally at fostering cultural pride, rather than simply providing instruction in a foreign language.
Yes, students need to be exposed to different cultures. But only to prepare them to be part of an integrated community - not members of an ethnocentric communal enclave.
DOE would do well to shelve the whole idea as a painful lesson learned.
