Congratulations to Harmony Science Academy for being in the news (again)
This will not stop until they have been 100% honest with Americans and with themselves.
By Jacqueline Crea - Multimedia Journalist
Thursday, December 8, 2011 - 10:09am
EL PASO- The Harmony Schools in Texas have been accused of indoctrinating Muslim religious beliefs in their curriculum.
The Harmony Schools are charter schools in Texas that focus on Math and Science. There are two in the El Paso area which have been attracting attention for their success rates with the students.
The Cosmos Foundation is the parent organization to the Harmony Schools. It is a charter school operator founded a decade by a group of professors and businessmen from Turkey. Cosmos has moved quickly to become the largest charter school operator in Texas, with 33 schools receiving more than $100 million a year in taxpayer funds.There are about 120 schools across the country that teach over 20,000 students.
In the last few years, the schools have been garnering negative attention for their supposed link to the Gulen Movement, a Muslim following. Many of the staff and some of the founders of the schools are from Turkey and happen to be followers of Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish preacher of a moderate brand of Islam.
The Superintendent of the schools and one of the Co-founders, Soner Tarim, is a Turkish-American and came to the United States in the early 90's to study at Texas A&M. He says the schools do not reach religion at the schools. " Because I'm the head of the school people should not look at me and label the school...all of our teachers and parents know that we do not teach religion obviously, this is a public school."
Allene Helmick, a parent at Harmony Science Academy in El Paso, has been sending her son there for three years. She says she's completely satisfied with the school, but did do her research beforehand amidst the negative media attention."I am Christian and I would never send my child to a Muslim indoctrinated school because of course it's opposite of my belief," she said.
A recent graduate from Harmony Science Academy said the school prepared him for success. "The school prepared me well enough that I was able to go out there and apply for anything that I wanted because of the experience I got here," said Israel Castro. He is now a freshman at UTEP paid for by a full academic scholarship.
Not everyone in the school system is happy with Harmony. Donna Garner, a former teacher in Texas, has been studying these schools for years. She says the schools are a front for an Islamic movement. "They have brought in all these teachers from Turkey, how are they going to teach students about being a good solid American patriot, to learn about the U.S. Constitution, to honor our forefathers, to study the declaration of independence."
Tarim refutes this and says that some of the teachers are international, but 85% are hired locally.
Garner also recalled a situation at a Harmony School performance in Texas, when students stomped on an American Flag. Whether this is true or not, Harmony Schools insist that they do not teach any Anti-American beliefs.
Tarim say "We believe that math and science prepare our students for college for life so that they can be successful."
WHAT DOES HE MEAN THEY DONT TEACH RELIGION?!?!?!?
ReplyDeleteA FREIND JUST GOT A STUDY SHEET SHOWING THEY ARE TEACHING RELIGION, BECAUSE IT HAD LISTED ABOUT 10 DIFFERENT RELIGIONS SHOWING WHAT EACH ONE BELIEVES.
SHE IS TAKING HER KID OUT.
Anonymous, we are not sure what the sheet looks like.
ReplyDeleteHowever, in trying to stay fair-balanced (as much as we can) The list might be a contrast-compare of world religions maybe done for a world history course? This sort of thing is usually not done until you are in College.
There have been many reports that the Gulen Managed Charter schools in the USA do push their "interfaith dialog" dinners on parents, teachers, etc., With that said they can choose not to go and hear a sales job on Imam Muhammed Fethullah Gulen.
Many of the parents that have gone on the Turkey trips with their children reported receiving literature, brochures on teachings of Gulen.
If it disturbs you or your friend, you should take a copy of it to the Texas state education offices.
On a foot note, we were not impressed with the Christian American who spoke about her son at HSA. The Gulen Movement does home visits and knows what families or students to single out as supporters.
Generally they get single parents
praise their children and give them good grades
undeserving in most cases. If you child leaves traditional public schools and is getting Cs , Ds and Fs only to enroll at a privately managed charter school to recieve As, it is quite suspect.
I have heard parents tell me personally, "This school is great MY child is receiving As"
These parents don't care about anything but their child's grades and outer appearance, much like the Gulen Movement. Outer appearances. Hence..........this is why an unusual large amount of their money intended for education is spent on PR, marketing and advertising.
But you cannot blame them. It is after all......a business.