So make a new one on ways to increase reading among youth! Who said posts have to be useful? Useful to whom?
Jeez -- I simply posted a quote from a newspaper article, and now I have to start a whole online symposium on parenting and teaching methodologies to increase literacy rates?
I didn't sign on for that when I started this thread.
Sorry.
And while the Qatar Foundation is a great initiative that I think is making advances in providing a great level of higher education to many nationals, I don't think that it is representative of the larger system of independent schools and the level of education that most students get in non-private high schools here.
Though I think the 6 minutes factoid from the article might be a bit of a stretch, I don't think the majority of kids here read much at all. Very few Arabs I know read for pleasure, yet nearly every western expat I know does...
When you say they are fluent in R/W/S, qatarexplorer, I would question whether they are. Most of the Arabic instructors I have worked with over the years here routinely expressed dismay at the level of Arabic many local students possessed (I am unclear if they refer to grammar skills, reading, writing - or a combo of all). I'm certainly not qualified to make any assessment of their Arabic skills, but I have to trust that those teacher knew their stuff.
"If you're looking for sympathy, you'll find it between sh*t and syphilis in the dictionary."
- David Sedaris
So make a new one on ways to increase reading among youth! Who said posts have to be useful? Useful to whom?
Jeez -- I simply posted a quote from a newspaper article, and now I have to start a whole online symposium on parenting and teaching methodologies to increase literacy rates?
I didn't sign on for that when I started this thread.
Sorry.
And while the Qatar Foundation is a great initiative that I think is making advances in providing a great level of higher education to many nationals, I don't think that it is representative of the larger system of independent schools and the level of education that most students get in non-private high schools here.
Though I think the 6 minutes factoid from the article might be a bit of a stretch, I don't think the majority of kids here read much at all. Very few Arabs I know read for pleasure, yet nearly every western expat I know does...
When you say they are fluent in R/W/S, qatarexplorer, I would question whether they are. Most of the Arabic instructors I have worked with over the years here routinely expressed dismay at the level of Arabic many local students possessed (I am unclear if they refer to grammar skills, reading, writing - or a combo of all). I'm certainly not qualified to make any assessment of their Arabic skills, but I have to trust that those teacher knew their stuff.
"If you're looking for sympathy, you'll find it between sh*t and syphilis in the dictionary."
- David Sedaris