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Why Some Palestinians Want to Learn Like Israelis
(Christian Science Monitor) Ben Lynfield - Israel has introduced the Israeli curriculum into selected schools for Arab children in east Jerusalem at the initiative of parents seeking to facilitate their children's acceptance in the Israeli job market and at Israeli universities. ''Parents know that the future of their children is in Israel,'' says David Koren, an adviser to the Jerusalem mayor. ''Parents requested having the option of the Israeli curriculum. People were paying 12,000 shekels ($3,430 dollars) for private courses to prepare their children for Israeli universities and they asked the mayor, why not open a track within the school?'' Seven east Jerusalem schools now offer the option of the Israeli curriculum, up from two last year. In practice, this means considerably more Hebrew, more science, and big changes in civics and history courses. Israeli officials deny that the curriculum is offensive in any way to Muslims, stressing it is the same curriculum used in government schools serving the Arab minority in Israel. At the Ahmed Sameh al-Khalidi boys school in Abu Tor, principal Najwa Farhat says the Israeli curriculum offers more course options and a better education than the PA's because it emphasizes critical thinking, not just memorization. "In the Israeli program, the student can be his own investigator and think about matters and not just learn things by heart. The Palestinian curriculum does not give the student a chance to think about things," she says.