A Language/culture based charter school is a Charter school whose curriculum is based on the language and culture of a specific ethnic nation or group of nations, although the schools are open to students of all ethnic backgrounds.
A review by the Washington advocacy group, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, found that among the more than 4,600 charters nationwide, 113 have mission statements specifying such ethnic cultural themes. These include the Amber Charter School in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, the Eugenio Maria de Hostos Charter School in Rochester, New York, both of which feature instruction in Spanish and in Hispanic cultures, the Ben Gamla Charter School, the country’s first Hebrew language charter school, which opened in Hollywood, Florida, in 2007, the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School, where by grade six all subjects except English language arts will be taught in Chinese, and the Hellenic Classical Charter School in Brooklyn, New York.
A language/culture based charter school is similar in many respects to a religious charter school. Lawrence D. Weinberg, in his book Religious Charter Schools: Legalities and Practicalities, argues that a charter school can be religious in many ways and that charter schools may accommodate religious beliefs, but not endorse religious beliefs. Religious charter schools would include Catholic schools that converted to charters as happened in Washington, D.C. and some Hebrew or Arabic language schools.
Famous quotes containing the words language, culture, based, charter and/or school:
“Language makes it possible for a child to incorporate his parents’ verbal prohibitions, to make them part of himself....We don’t speak of a conscience yet in the child who is just acquiring language, but we can see very clearly how language plays an indispensable role in the formation of conscience. In fact, the moral achievement of man, the whole complex of factors that go into the organization of conscience is very largely based upon language.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“To assault the total culture totally is to be free to use all the fruits of mankind’s wisdom and experience without the rotten structure in which these glories are encased and encrusted.”
—Judith Malina (b. 1926)
“Because it is not always easy for an adult to predict what inaccurate ideas a child may have, it can help to answer questions first with one of your own: “What do you think?” Once you find out what a child is really asking, you’ll be in a better position to give a helpful answer based on the facts.”
—Joanna Cole (20th century)
“When Britain first, at Heaven’s command,
Arose from out the azure main,
This was the charter of her land,
And guardian angels sung the strain:
Rule, Britannia! Britannia rules the waves!
Britons never shall be slaves.”
—James Thomson (1700–1748)
“Anyone who has been to an English public school will always feel comparatively at home in prison. It is the people brought up in the gay intimacy of the slums ... who find prison so soul-destroying.”
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966)