'Immigrants need to learn English': Tennessee school district offers Arabic program

'[S]chools shouldn't be pressured to teach a language because a lot of people in that area are speaking that language.'

Nashville, Tenn. students are primarily native English, Spanish and Arabic speakers. Several English language services are offered in the Metropolitan Nashville Public School District - and now there is an Arabic program as well.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - According to the Tennessean, a new report indicates there are roughly 85,000 children enrolled in the district with over 12,300 in need of English language services.

Sixty-two percent of the students requiring English language services are in elementary school and the majority speak Spanish, with Arabic the second-most common native language

Despite the need to speak, read and write in English to succeed in the American education system, district officials believe Arabic language lessons should be provided at six of the district's public schools.

The officials announced the program on Tuesday.

The new program "gives our schools yet another unique and attractive feature for families, and helps meet the demands of our increasingly diverse city," Jesse Register, the director of Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, stated in a news release.

The six schools chosen to implement the Arabic program were selected based on results of a survey on the students' use of their native language at home.

Each of the schools - Antioch High School, Margaret Allen Middle Prep, Cane Ridge High School, Antioch Middle Prep, Overton High School and McMurray Middle Prep - include a large population of Arabic-speaking students.

Two courses will be offered in the program: beginning Arabic and heritage Arabic, which will help native speakers learn how to read and write in Arabic.

Blogger Allan Wall, who writes for VDare, expressed his concerns with offering the program and wrote, "schools shouldn't be pressured to teach a language because a lot of people in that area are speaking that language. Immigrants need to learn English."

His concerns partially stem from the students' inability to properly assimilate and excel in the American education system. "It's not the job of our public schools to 'help them stay connected to their native culture,'" he wrote. "In some cases, such 'connections' are only going to cause more problems."

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