Where Is The ACLU?

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

It isn't a Muslim school, Ed.

[OldGreyEagle]

I was was wondering about having a High School with a curriculum far removed from the ordinary and how unfair or unjust that was. Then, I had a thought, the 1980 movie Fame, about the New York High School for the Performing Arts, it is a Public High School but with a radically different curriculum than the norm. I see this as the same. The real test will be when a student of northern european descent applies for admission and is refused. Anything until then is speculation, we have to see how it works out

[evmori]

Take a look at the subject line!

 

Now back to the thread!

 

The School for the Performing Arts is a lot different than having a school for certain ethnic groups.

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

[OldGreyEagle]

The title of the thread I am responding to is titled "Where is the ACLU", in this thread were comments about changing the regular curriculum and I was pointing out a public school with a radically changed curriculum. Now, Leroy got admitted because he could dance and his partner was not. Seeing as lack of dancing ability is not a protected civil right, she was out of luck. Before we whip ourselves into a frenzy about what we think the ACLU will do, I suggest we wait for the school to form and begin to admit students. When caucasian christians are denied entrance to the public school then it is time to ask where the ACLU is, at that point, I beleive Merlyn would have sympathy for white christians being denied entrance to a public school simply because they are white and christian

[fgoodwin]

OGE: I think Ed was referring to a script adding some text to the subject line in his post. I haven't seen the problem he refers to, but there is another thread going on about it in the Announcements Forum.

[evmori]

Exactly what I was referring to Fred.

[FScouter]

I was guessing he was just trying to boost his post count, but that would be ridiculous.

[OldGreyEagle]

Apology accepted, but the point remains, we ask where the ACLU is when the new public school discriminates based on race and/or religion and anything done before that is speculation

[Day_Starr]

Khalil Gibran was a poet, and I believe that the focus of the school is cultural, as is the new Asian High School that is being built or recently opened here in Queens. Although the focus is on the Arabic culture any student can apply if they are interested.

 

I have mixed feelings about the schools -- we've fought too hard to integrate here in New York, and it still hasn't happened. Schools are basically composed of children of the segregated communities that NYC is composed of. And schools in poorer communities still get the short end of the stick.

 

After 911 I can understand Arabs feeling the need to have a culturally friendly high school, because anti-Arab/Muslim feelings are still high though not as strident.

 

Still, I'd prefer to see schools were all cultures could be shared.

 

PS: A poem from Khalil Gibran

 

"And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, "Speak to us of Children."

 

And he said:

 

Your children are not your children.

 

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

 

They come through you but not from you,

 

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

 

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

 

For they have their own thoughts.

 

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

 

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

 

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

 

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

 

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

 

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

 

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;

 

For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable. "

 

[evmori]

I was guessing he was just trying to boost his post count, but that would be ridiculous.

 

I hope you aren't referring to me FScouter.

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

[Hunt]

I was listening to a talk show about this school the other day, as well as a similar school in another state that was going to teach Hebrew and Jewish culture, but supposedly not religion. There was a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State on the show, and he objected to both schools on the grounds that teaching Islam and Judaism would be inevitable because of the texts that would be used in the school (i.e., the Koran). It was a good discussion--the addition of the "Jewish" school to the issue meant that the focus was on drawing the line between teaching culture and religion, and not on anti-Islamic terrorism hysteria. Perhaps the ACLU hasn't taken a position on this one because there's a real question on which side to take--against religious discrimination (allowing the school to teach Arabic and Islamic culture), or against establishment of religion (prohibiting the school from teaching Islam in the guise of language and culture).