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The Khalil Gibran International Academy (Continued from Page 1) Sarah Childers, Indiana Ambassadors of Peace and Hope... Director’s Report The Khalil Gibran International Academy (continued from page 1) Sarah Childers, Indiana we spend as much of our summer as possible. We boys are of the community and the sons of our ebbie Almontaser built on her teaching Muslim firebrand Daniel Pipes, formed a group share a small cabana (wooden shack with shower) neighbors, yet the maintenance staff are all people career and history of “interfaith activism called Stop the Madrassa. Their website reveals a with two other families, we have direct access to of color – a pretty stark distinction linked to who and outreach across the boundaries of race, frightening array of anti-Muslim slander and spin, D 1 the Atlantic Ocean and there’s a swimming pool does what for the members, who are seen and who ethnicity and religion” to reach her dream of open- which is used as justification of their views on the and concession stand. We even have a “cabana are unseen. At the private country club, the mem- ing a school that would focus on Arab culture and school. Most of their arguments against the school boy” (read Flamingo Kid) and my children attend bership and guests were all white and overwhelm- language. Her vision was that the multicultural cur- are comprised of inciting fear of the “other” by camp there as well. It provides us with the most ingly Jewish, while the wait staff were people of riculum and environment of the naming the school a madrassa (an amazing family time I can imagine, and it is how color or recent white immigrants – immigrants not school would help students to Arabic word meaning “school” we choose to spend our summers. As I arrived that too dissimilar from my own grandparents. Race and become “ambassadors of peace that has taken on a negative con- Friday afternoon I began to think about my oppor- privilege were front and center for me; there were and hope.” However, days notation in the media), using tunity to even have such a choice, and I acknowl- no easy correlates to define what privilege went after her school’s plans were the word “intifada” as described edged my thankfulness for my circumstance. My with which race...yet there were tendencies that announced, she and the school above, using Ms. Almontaser’s thoughts then returned for a bit to the East 50s in were hard to ignore. board began receiving threats birth name, Dhabah, instead of Brooklyn; I still hadn’t quite landed on privilege, but My goal in thinking and writing about my day and criticism based not on Ms. the name she has chosen to use I knew I was thinking about something. and about privilege is not to offer a sermon or Almontaser’s activities, record or professionally (Debbie) and play- Normally, we would stay at the beach, give the pretend that I have some unique insight. But as I career, but on her religion. Ms. ing a sketchy game of connect kids dinner and showers and they would pass out considered this particular day with all the ideas, Almontaser is a Muslim immi- the dots between Ms. Almontaser on the ride home. Last night was not normal. We thoughts and feelings it showed me, I found myself grant from Yemen. and KGIA and any organization were invited as “guests”, along with some friends, turning to the mission of NSRF, our work of foster- The Khalil Gibran with a Muslim-sounding name. to the local country club – a pretty exclusive place ing equity and some newer work, from within our International Academy (KGIA), a Mr. Pipes sees the emer- that we rarely access, yet is completely local to my network, of interrupting inequity. public school in New York City, gence of the school as just one neighborhood. It’s close enough that we ride around At our recent Accountability Council meeting New York, opened in September in a string of nation-wide occur- it on our bicycles, always around the perimeter, yet we began wrestling with the issue of equity and, of 2007. The school is funded rences of Muslims “imposing rarely visit. In country clubs, at least the few that I for the first time, wondered aloud if a fault line had in part by the American-Jewish their religious values in the public have been to, there are members, guests, and work- emerged between our theoretical understanding of World Service and the Christian domain.”5 Simple accommoda- ers – with an unspoken (usually) code among them. our mission and its practical implications. Indeed, Children’s Fund, and was tions for people with lifestyles I began participating and observing, making eye when is it appropriate to foster equity and when planned in conjunction with and values different from the contact and little comments with Michelle, my wife might it be necessary to interrupt inequity? Who the Lutheran Medical Center dominant culture, such as a local and partner, and the thoughts came flooding in as decides? Can two seemingly oppositional ideas be and American-Arab Anti- pool holding hours for women- an insight. I was replaying my day in bits and piec- mutually compatible? How might this be a compet- Discrimination Committee2. only, or Muslims running for es, thoughts and images, and the notion of privilege ing tension that we can all learn from? Is there right However, before the school Ms. Debbie Almontaser political office, are interpreted came washing over me. and wrong? Truth? Whose truth? Is race the only even opened its doors, Ms. by Mr. Pipes as a “soft jihad,” or In the span of a day I had experienced privi- difference to consider when choosing a facilitation Almontaser was forced to step a slow insinuation of Islam and lege at three different levels: a distinction in central team? Or is that just the easiest to discern? Or do down as the founding principal under a hailstorm of Muslims into American society – something he says Brooklyn that was a new discovery for me; the race and racism trump all other similarities and attacks. They began when a T-shirt reading “Intifada should be feared and fought. Even teaching the feeling of my own privilege and my appreciation differences? Do the principals of color in Brooklyn NYC” was made by Arab Women in Art and Media, Arabic language in school, according to Pipes, is a I experience for it; and a level of privilege that is have more in common with the children they are an organization operating with the support of Saba: gateway to terrorism. beyond my own economic circumstance that I am charged with teaching or with their white col- The Association of American Yemenis, where Ms. Since the school’s opening, lawsuits have been near to but not a part of. leagues? What does “across difference” mean in Almontaser is a board member. This slogan caused filed by Ms. Almontaser and Stop the Madrassa, I also had to consider race as it was staring this context? alarm, with the New York Post declaring that the both against one another and the New York me in the face all day long. Central Brooklyn and These are big questions for NSRF and big ques- shirts called for “a Gaza-style uprising in the Big Department of Education. The students at the the children who attend school in that part of New tions for our schools. Some other questions I bet Apple,” as well as “pro-violence,” “glorify(ing) school have been subjected to a chaotic environ- York are overwhelmingly, if not exclusively, people folks are thinking about as another school year Palestinian terror,” and calling Ms. Almontaser ment of the press at the front doors and continuing of color – a mix of African-Americans, Caribbean begins: Do we really know how to teach everyone “revolting.”3 public scrutiny. Americans, Africans and Latinos and Latinas – and to read? How come only 50% of urban children Fueled by the fear generated by the T-shirts, a Across the country, innumerable schools are almost all of the children attending school receive graduate from high school in four years? Is this the movement began against the school generally and preparing to begin a new school year, during free or reduced price lunches, a true metric of pov- best history curriculum? Who should pick the prin- Ms. Almonstaser specifically. Those opposing the which they will doubtless offer foreign language erty. Two of the four principals I worked with that cipal? How big should our classes be? How many school claimed that the school’s true purpose was and bilingual instruction. In New York alone, 200 morning are African-American, two are white, and fire drills do we have to do before December? not what it seemed – that in fact it’s goal was to small schools focusing on Chinese, French or all, by definition, are middle or upper middle class. Can I really spend a month on estimation? What’s indoctrinate students into Islam and turn them into Russian will begin classes again. The Khalil Gibran At the beach club, the membership is almost exclu- “Facebook” again? terrorists.4 International Academy sively white and predominately Jewish; the cabana Winter play? Fall (continued on page 11) Local parents, with the help of national anti- will be reopening in a (continued on page 13) 10 Fall 2008 Connections: the Journal of the National School Reform Faculty Connections: the Journal of the National School Reform Faculty Fall 2008 7 The Five Freedoms Project Leadership Academy Khalil Gibran Int.’l Academy Kim Carter, New Hampshire (continued from page 7) Congress shall make no law respecting an establish- are essential if we hope to expand liberty and jus- I often feel pain at my choice, the easy road, ment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise tice for more people in the twenty first century.” My Reflection compared to that of my Muslim sisters who thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of From the Academy’s initial Opening Moves Sarah Childers, Indiana continue to endure abuse for their chosen reli- the press; or of the right of the people peaceably to the final gathering on the last day, co-facilitators I wonder if Ms.
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