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Sunday, August 17, 2014

Besides learning how to be fluent in doublespeak, we will have to be proficient in Arabic too


Last year I was passing  by Fort Lauderdale  on my way to Miami by public transport and throughout the ride I could hear nothing but Spanish. I suppose in Detroit, one can hear nothing but Arabic.  

In Toronto, if you are a poor nobody like moi who depends mainly on public transit,  you  better get used to hearing a lot of Chinese dialects.  When you have listened to the language constantly, it might sound all the same to you, but based on the tone and dialects, one can even learn to pinpoint the region of China the speaker hails from.  The reason I like the Chinese immigrants the best is because they never insist that the schools or the government should change the country's rules or regulations to suit their old life-style, something that the bullies within the other immigrant communities never stop doing.

However,  what the know-it-all in Michigan are doing now is paving the road for a separatist state or autonomous rule sometime in the future ... near future or far future, I don't know. But the readings are very prominently there.  It's going to happen.

From USA Today:
Detroit-area school district with a growing Arab-American population has agreed to improve its programs for students with limited English skills and to potentially hire more educators of Arab descent.

In a 31-page agreement with the Department of Justice, the Crestwood School District in Dearborn Heights says it "shall take appropriate action to overcome language barriers that impede equal and meaningful participation by" students with limited English skills.

The settlement also requires the district to provide school documents in both English and foreign languages such as Arabic and to promote a more diverse staff. The agreement was released in both Arabic and English.

"This is a great victory for the Arab-American community and its children to become contributing citizens in our country," said Shereef Akeel, a Troy attorney who filed a federal complaint in 2011 on behalf of Hiam Brinjikji, a counselor in the school district who complained about the district's neglect of Arab immigrant students.

District officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

Brinjikji, who is of Arab descent, said in the federal complaint that she complained about the lack of attention to Arab-American students who didn't know English well. She also said the district wasn't hiring enough Arab-Americans and said she was retaliated against for complaining.

Last year, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that the Crestwood district had violated federal civil rights laws.

But in Wednesday's agreement, "the district admits no liability to violations of" a 1974 federal law banning discrimination in education.

The agreement gives detailed, specific instructions to Crestwood on how to improve its programs for those with limited English skills. The district has to ask all parents to fill out a home language survey to identify potential students who don't know English well.......

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