MLK Arabic Classes

Our Work for Arabic Classes in Oakland

 

نحن ، أولياء أمور مدرسة MLK الابتدائية ، نطالب بفتح فصل لتعليم اللغة العربية لأطفالنا في المدرسة. توجد العديد من العائلات في أحياء غرب أوكلاند من الذين يتحدثون اللغة العربية. وجود فصل اللغة العربية سيعزز العلاقة بين الطلاب وأسرهم ، كذلك سيساعد الأطفال العرب على الاعتزاز بخلفيتهم الثقافية. سيحتوي الفصل على الأطفال الذين يتحدثون العربية كلغتهم الأولى وسيكون هناك المجال للأطفال الذين يريدون تعلم اللغة العربية كلغة ثانية. وجود فصل عربي في المدرسة سيساعد الأطفال العرب على حصولهم على التعليم دون الحاجة الى الذهاب الى مراكز تعليم اللغة العربية في عطلتهم الأسبوعية والتي سيستمتعون بقضائها مع أسرهم. وكذلك سيجلب المزيد من التفاهم والاحترام لمجتمعنا المتنوع في غرب أوكلاند. نحن نعتقد أنها سوف تكون إحدى الطرق الفعالة لتقوية العلاقات في مجتمعنا

اذا كان هناك 20 طالبًا في فصل ما، أو 30 في مدرسة بأكملها يطالبون بالفصل، فستقوم منطقة التعليم بتوفير الفصل.  العديد من عائلات بلان لديها الاستعداد لتوقيع العريضة وهدفنا هو الحصول على أكثر من 100 توقيع. 

 


A Little Background: 

Arabic classes have been the request from the Yemeni community of west Oakland for years; however, parents didn’t have the support to push the school and the district to provide it for their children. Now that PLAN is providing meetings for people where they feel they are supported; parents have been mentioning it since the start of the Arabic #KeepOurKidsSafe Campaign meetings.

People were very excited that we were asking them about problems they were facing and solutions they think for those problems. They talked about financial problems, technology problems, learning problems, and communication problems. We have been working on solutions to all of the problems. Some of the solutions are things PLAN can provide, and others we can support with by using the available resources. Arabic class was one of the main requests from parents.

One of the parents sent the link for the first SSC meeting of MLK. I joined the meeting and asked the principle for the Arabic class again. She sounded excited and willing to work with us to get it done. We scheduled a meeting to talk about it the following week. I introduced myself as the Arabic Parent Organizer for PLAN. The principal apologized for not responding to my email earlier and we decided to work together towards this goal and meet every week and talk about our accomplishments and next steps until we succeed. We have met three times plus two SSC meetings and talked about it. There are other parents and staff that have been joining the meetings with us. All of the parents are PLAN families. 

Ms. Groves, the principal, invited a representative from the OUSD to our meeting. She explained to us that the district is willing to provide the class if there is enough demand. The rule is if there is 20 in a class or 30 in the whole school that are demanding for a class, then the district will provide the class. Many of our PLAN families are ready to sign the petition. The goal is to get over 100 signatures. If we succeed, MLK would be the first school  in Oakland to have Arabic  as a bilingual class.

There are many other families who are demanding to have Arabic classes at their different school sites in Oakland, but we are working now to get it done at MLK. We can learn about the steps that are needed for getting it done, and then we can do the same in other schools. The goal is to have Arabic classes in schools where there are a lot of children with Arab ethnicity, so they don’t have to spend the weekends going to Arabic school. Children can spend weekends having fun with family and friends. 


We, Parents of MLK Elementary School, are demanding an Arabic class for our children in the school. Many families of West Oakland neighborhoods speak Arabic. An Arabic class would strengthen the relationship among students and families, while helping the Arab children have pride in their culture background. The class would contain Arab students whose first language is Arabic and Non-Arab students who want to learn Arabic as a second language. Having an Arabic class in the school would help Arab children learn without the need to go to Arabic learning centers on the weekends, and they can instead spend time with their families. It would bring more understanding and respect to our diverse community of West Oakland. We believe that it would be one of the ways to bring our community together. 

 

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