“We have come a long way in providing the bi-lingual basis for our students, but
there are still important challenges ahead, especially concerning the acquisition of spoken Arabic by Jewish children”.
He said that the Arab students as a minority in the country integrate more and are more concerned about learning Hebrew. For Jewish students, while the bilingual stream of education is successful at teaching reading and writing Arabic, spoken Hebrew is still dominant inside the school, something that proves difficult to change since Hebrew is so dominant also outside of school life. However, the school is successful at reducing alienation and negative attitudes towards the Arabic language, systematically found in surveys of the Jewish public as well as amongst Jewish children.
Learning Arabic is mandatory for 7th-10th graders under Israeli state law.
“We think this is too little and too late to start learning a language as you lose the development window from when you are younger.”
While this directive exists, he said most schools do not actually follow through with it and if they do, they only study the standard Arabic and not the spoken language that would facilitate better communication with one another. So even the few students who do take these classes feel discouraged that they cannot have a short conversation with
native Arabic speakers, and so gradually
lose interest in the language.
Uri said this is because of a lack of motivation which comes from the all the things they know about the general attitude towards Arabic and from the lack of encouragement to strengthen ties between Arabs and Jews. He thinks Israel faces a national imperative to better at it.
Hagar’s biggest success to date has been their ability to establish a program that draws people in and has a good education system that has a unique pedagogue curricula.
“I have seen other efforts from different programs that have not achieved this. We are also doing something that creates a strong, active and lively community.”
The association conducted a community study trip on Nakba day to learn about the Palestinian past and present of Be’er Sheva and two weeks later met at a dance party on a Friday afternoon.
“I do not know many communities that can bridge those activities.”
Uri noted that the support for this program is not limited to Israel. They have a USAID program that is helping to provide funding to help Hagar improve their programs and their building facilities. The Hagar Association is also a recipient of the EU Partnership for Peace project that helps them develop stories for children written by Arabic and Jewish authors that focus on 10 events that happen throughout the school year, either religious or related to national holidays, around which they develop a curriculum.
Hagar Association
DAVIDS STAR MAGAZINE
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