I got this email today from the PS 282 parents who wrote the letter to Chancellor Klein yesterday. They wanted to clarify their position — and thought that I may have misinterpreted their email. Yes, it’s true I may have misconstrued the meaning of their email. Or maybe they weren’t clear. Their inclusion of the link to the Militant Islam Monitor was misleading. This letter helps to clarify their position.

Dear Louise Crawford,

We are sorry if you have misunderstood the meaning of what we were writing, or maybe we didn’t express ourselves well.
Our letter was written as a personal missive and the meaning that you attribute to it is misleading.

As has already been quoted regarding this blog, "The potential controversy about the school adds a potentially destructive further layer of complication to the situation. It’s clear that the Khalil Gibran International Academy will face opposition by MIM and like-minded ideologues wherever it goes."

This is the reason why the extreme radical article was included; only to show the worst of what outside feelings are already being voiced about the proposed addition to our school.

We would be happy to have both arabic language and middle east studies added to our current curriculum. Children should have the opportunity to learn about Aristotele as well as Ibn Rushd and of Plato as well as Abū ‘Alī al-Husayn; they should know were our mathematic and astrological systems come from and read the most beautiful poems by arab poets such as Omar Khayyám. Certainly this field of study has been largely ignored in American childhood public education.

Our children have a beautiful school with enough space to enable them in their learning that would be reduced substantially by the new installment. If you attended the PTA meeting you would probably agree that the group of presenters did not appear to have given any consideration to the effects it would have on the current school population. In fact they admitted that they had only looked at the "square foot per child" ratio of the building and were unprepared to address any issues of sharing between 5 yr old children and teenagers of school facilities like the cafeteria and bathrooms. Not to mention security issues.

If the promoters of the Khalill Gibran International Academy are given entry to our school so will their critics, and we think that by reporting what you could easily find with a simple google search, shows how low could be the tone of the debate. Whether or not you or we want it, this is the pressure that we are talking about and one element that our community, by default, will have to confront.
In addition to the loss of space and other physical adjustments, we as a community have to be aware of the kind of pressure this new school could put on our children.

thank you for taking the time and giving space on your blog for this discussion and allowing us to clarify our opinions, again we apologize if our intentions were misleading or misunderstood.

best regards