{"id":2511,"date":"2019-10-28T02:19:57","date_gmt":"2019-10-27T23:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/?p=2511"},"modified":"2019-10-28T18:16:43","modified_gmt":"2019-10-28T15:16:43","slug":"hamtramcks-diverse-schools-continue-to-come-into-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/hamtramcks-diverse-schools-continue-to-come-into-focus\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamtramck\u2019s diverse schools continue to come into focus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

Report by: Simon Albaugh<\/strong><\/p>\n

Roeper, Waldorf, Washtenaw International; these are all famous Michigan schools that have earned a spot among the best in teaching diversity. But looking into their backgrounds and the people they serve, it\u2019s only so far that these claims can take the state as a whole.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no doubt that private schools with rigorous application processes and limited tuition assistance can allow for a good education. But when the challenge of fostering inclusion comes with poverty, language barriers, and a plethora of cultural expressions, the issues become challenging for any school, and especially for an entire school district.<\/p>\n

Some of Hamtramck and Detroit\u2019s education leaders came together for a Forum to talk about this gap. They brought years of activism, experience, and know-how into understanding the ways diversity can affect students year after year. And the overwhelming consensus was that it could be both a challenge and a blessing.<\/p>\n

Three of the speakers are members of the Yemeni community that\u2019s thriving in Hamtramck and Dearborn. Most have long-since graduated from the public schools and all of them went on to either serve the community or seek advanced degrees.<\/p>\n

Adeeb Mozip is a doctoral student at Wayne State University. His doctoral thesis will be on the way Middle Eastern Students experience college. \u201cWhat led me to my doctoral study is reading a lot about diversity and inclusion,\u201d Mozip said. \u201cIt\u2019s an institutional struggle and institutions are struggling to accommodate us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mozip was a unique student. Making his way to college wasn\u2019t common among the friends he grew up with. He says this is because college doesn\u2019t always foster the needs of different cultures. Cultures that have an intense focus on maintaining family ties and traditions especially aren\u2019t credited in colleges.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout the time I was graduating, I wondered why it was just me here,\u201d he said. \u201cTo put this in context, the college was the exception rather than the norm.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the time Emad Shammakh, another panelist was growing up in Hamtramck, the rules were different. Classes weren\u2019t canceled for Muslim holidays. Oftentimes the fasting students would sit in the library during lunch so they wouldn\u2019t have to watch the other students eat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when we were in the 4th grade when it was Eid,\u201d said Emad Shammakh. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t important enough for the school district though. So they didn\u2019t close the schools then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shammakh has recently become president of the Yemeni-American Leadership Association, where he teaches skills and counsels people through processes like applying for Medicare and Citizenship.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it weren\u2019t for my Hamtramck teachers, I wouldn\u2019t be here at this event,\u201d Shammakh said.<\/p>\n

Working within the district is an entirely different story. Jaleelah Ahmed started as the English Language Development Director before she eventually became the school District\u2019s current Superintendent.<\/p>\n

Ahmed talked about the difficult process of being the only applicant from the city\u2019s vast Middle Eastern culture. But at a time when people didn\u2019t know how to feel about the changing demographics of the city, Ahmed said the district\u2019s contenders for Superintendent lashed out because of her background, instead of the issues at hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started to say, why is no one talking about the students?\u201d Ahmed said. \u201cNo one was talking about the portables, the African American graduation gap, or how we were one of the lowest-performing school districts in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even after she became Hamtramck\u2019s new superintendent, she still held some opposition because of her background. Ahmed continued to say \u201cI said, \u2018If you have a problem working with me, then I know you have a problem working with children who look like me,\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The issues within Detroit Metro schools are massive. As a Detroit Free Press Op-Ed Writer put it, many people see only severely limited options open to them. Laila Nasher authored a report showing how many young girls find that their only option is to marry because they\u2019re worried they wouldn\u2019t be able to go to college or find a good job.<\/p>\n

Another panelist, Mika\u2019il Stewart Saadiq put the issue of diversity into a different perspective. He said it wasn\u2019t about growing up in low-income communities or not having access to education. Instead, the issues that Hamtramck and Detroit schools face are about the history of land-ownership that has historically been dominated within a small group of people.<\/p>\n

\u201cInclusion is a struggle around land and property taxes,\u201d Saadiq said.<\/p>\n

Since Hamtramck became \u2018the most diverse city in America\u2019 and Detroit\u2019s population continues to shift, the question of how to maintain diversity and foster inclusion should always be on the minds of leaders in education. Because the people who grow up together will always need to depend on each other in the region\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

The Education and Inclusion Forum, held on October 16, was organized by Professor Alisa Perkins of Western Michigan University. She said the focus was for everyone in the panel to meet each other and understand the work that\u2019s going into each other\u2019s communities.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Report by: Simon Albaugh Roeper, Waldorf, Washtenaw International; these are all famous Michigan schools that have earned a spot among the best in teaching diversity. But looking into their backgrounds and the people they serve, it\u2019s only so far that these claims can take the state as a whole. It\u2019s no doubt that private schools […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-news","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2511"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2520,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2511\/revisions\/2520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}