I am delighted with the education my child is receiving at Harmony School of Nature and Athletics. Our child is receiving an excellent education and her sister has been on the waiting list for 2 years hoping to be able to enroll. Our family enthusiastically supports the fine job HPS does. Keep up the good work.
When I read the attack comments I could not but recognize a pattern. I googled some of their phrases and voila! These guys are apparently searching though the net for charter or Gulen related news and posting their same accusations everywhere. That's quite a lot of work, just to keep up with the blogs. And they label whoever critizises or corrects their postings as a Gulenist Turk! Another interesting common point is that these guys only post between 9 am and 5pm, so I believe posting these venomous comments is their regular job - somebody must be paying them well for this kind of tiring work!
Most of the 'dark propaganda' websites are operated by islamophobes. I know it's free speech. However I don't care what anybody writes on the internet. Any act can be viewed as extremely good or bad. But this is our bias. And I'm not interested about cultural and political biases. I care about court decisions, curriculums and success. As far as I can see, there is no court decision to close any schools. Curriculum is secular. And these schools are successful.
In addition to the concerns about ties to Gulen. Please remember the HB-1 Foreign Turk teachers are paid 10K-11K more than the US teachers employed at the same schools. This is a violation of the Equal Pay Act. There are several EEOC complaints filed and currently under investigation in the state of TX. The schools are also funded with federal and state tax dollars. Now having said that, if Cosmos Foundation and Harmony violates US laws it not a leap to conclude their repeated denials of association with Gulen are suspect. Also keep in mind while the US teachers are teaching their content area they cannot and are not in the classrooms of the Turk teachers to confirm or deny teachings other than the subject matter. While it is permissible to teach at a charter school without state certification, it is cause for concern.
Look, let's separate facts from your fictions and bugaboo. Harmony schools serve more than 16K students in total, and there are more than 20K students on their waiting list. Guess what if these teachers have been teaching something as you prejudicially implied, then how blind you would be to assume that the parents-who have been coming to schools twice a day (drop off and pick up)- would not know of any indoctrination? With what preconception you are able to claim that you know more than what parents would know? I take this as an insult as a parent. Also, keep in mind that these schools have been around for almost 10 years now, how many students or parents so far became Muslim? yet alone no mention about the countless number scientists and engineers graduated from these "blue ribbon schools"; perfect dictionary definition of Islamophobia. A null attempt to poison the air and discredit the success of these schools. Wish you a success in your attempt to block the sun with your dark wings!
Dear Friend:
So that is what this blather is about. The comments about Gulen and Islamophobia are simply smoke for some labor issue. I am familiar with what was taught to my sons (and check their homework), and your statements are based on what you fear, not on reality. I hope 60minutes is monitoring these comments to see the real news is what is driving these silly attacks on the Harmony schools.
You say H1B teachers are being paid 10-11K more than the US teachers. Maybe you are missing something here. To get an H1B employee, employers have to go with some government organizations. One of them is Department of Labor which determines the minimum wage level for that epmloyment. Our government is the one who is setting the minimum wages. Your statement is to deceive people, to have them think like they are favoring H1Bs.
Gulen is a modest Turkish muslim scholar and a peace advocate. He met with Pope and Israel's Chief Rabbi to promote dialog between different faiths. He called Bin Laden "a monster" right after 9/11 Attacks. He was selected as "Top Public Intellectual" by Foreign Policy Magazine. There are conferences all around the world about this movement, discussing how valuable his ideas are. I think we need more people like him in the world.
I'm interested and am asking friends and family to watch.
To get a student perspective, I've checked with both of my sons who graduated from one of these so-called Gulen schools. Neither of them was ever spoken to about Islam or anything religious in nature. Their world history class did cover the historical influence of some of the major religions.
My oldest son said his experience made him a nerd to some of his friends. He says he still doesn't like math, physics was almost impossible to pass, but he did love the school's drama program. Go Miss V!
My youngest son thought it was cool that his Turkish teachers were so good at soccer. Rewards for time spent studying were scrimmages on the field. After this year at the local university, he believes he was better prepared than many of his friends. He spent last night touting his grades, so I'm pleased with the education he received. He's currently pursuing biochemistry, so I guess the science emphasis stuck.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I also taught there. I loved all but the last month of school each year. I've attended board meetings, faculty meetings, and parent meetings; in more than eight years, I never experienced a hidden agenda, and no one ever tried to convert me to anything other than chai tea, which is actually amazing.
Parents are savvy consumers. Satisfied parents see their kids graduate. Dissatisfied parents place their children in another school, as they should. The third category rants and raves about a nefarious plot. Weird, but that's America.
and to the response from armenchrist - did you actually read BradburyRules' statement?? He's not a student, he's a parent. Please read carefully before making silly comments.
60 Minutes is well-regarded and one of the most popular TV shows in this country. I don't think any content of their episodes would be referring to prejudice or discrimination against any religion. That kind of false news would only harm their reputation. Let's hope to see an objective show.
I know there are some charter schools some of whose administrators are Turkish-American educators. Superintended of Baltimore City Public schools is an Cuban-American educator. I think labeling these successful public schools as "XYZ Inspired schools" solely based on the ethnic, religious or cultural background of their administrators would be an injustice. Parents, educators, politicians and local stakeholders, instead of worrying "who" these educators are, should cast their focus on "what" they are able to effectively deliver. We heard nothing but demonstration of peak academic performance year after year, which shows that the success is not a product of coincidence, yet it is a product of tireless effort by the dedicated teachers. Yes, it may be true that in these schools there could be some teachers who may be inspired by Gulen, as well as teachers who are be inspired by Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King, John Dewey, Horace Mann , Thomas Jefferson and several other philosophers. Considering the very small percentages of Turkish-American teachers in these schools, their presence can never make these schools as "Gulen Inspired School", yet alone no one knows how many of Turkish-American teachers are personally inspired by Gulen in any given school. Last but not the least, in this age of globalization, carrying diverse teacher body in our schools is and should not be considered as weaknesses, our diversities are our strength as like different roses in our rose garden with so many different colors and smells; each of whom offer different strentght to help our kids garner academic and social welfare. Therefore, I believe those of us, who claim to be true American cherishing American values of choice, freedom, pluralism and democracy, instead of putting roadblocks on their ways, we should help expansion of these successful charter school models, not a single, but any successful model, if we are really serious in helping to spend hard-earned tax-payers money for the very right cause.
I hope this story will not promote Xenophobia or Islamophobia. Please read the CAP report at the following link to see what I mean.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/08/islamophobia.html
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So that is what this blather is about. The comments about Gulen and Islamophobia are simply smoke for some labor issue. I am familiar with what was taught to my sons (and check their homework), and your statements are based on what you fear, not on reality. I hope 60minutes is monitoring these comments to see the real news is what is driving these silly attacks on the Harmony schools.
He was selected as "Top Public Intellectual" by Foreign Policy Magazine.
There are conferences all around the world about this movement, discussing how valuable his ideas are.
I think we need more people like him in the world.
To get a student perspective, I've checked with both of my sons who graduated from one of these so-called Gulen schools. Neither of them was ever spoken to about Islam or anything religious in nature. Their world history class did cover the historical influence of some of the major religions.
My oldest son said his experience made him a nerd to some of his friends. He says he still doesn't like math, physics was almost impossible to pass, but he did love the school's drama program. Go Miss V!
My youngest son thought it was cool that his Turkish teachers were so good at soccer. Rewards for time spent studying were scrimmages on the field. After this year at the local university, he believes he was better prepared than many of his friends. He spent last night touting his grades, so I'm pleased with the education he received. He's currently pursuing biochemistry, so I guess the science emphasis stuck.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I also taught there. I loved all but the last month of school each year. I've attended board meetings, faculty meetings, and parent meetings; in more than eight years, I never experienced a hidden agenda, and no one ever tried to convert me to anything other than chai tea, which is actually amazing.
Parents are savvy consumers. Satisfied parents see their kids graduate. Dissatisfied parents place their children in another school, as they should. The third category rants and raves about a nefarious plot. Weird, but that's America.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/08/islamophobia.html