From reading “Arab and Other Middle Eastern Americans”, I learned that middle easterners make up a large amount of the population of the US. Although there hasn’t been an exact census, it was predicted that their population is about 1million. Most immigrants come here to start their own business while there are those here to receive a better education. The 21st century immigrants are also more prosperous, educated, and politically active than the average American.
Something I can relate to is that Middle Easterners experience a lot of prejudice because of the media. Which this is true, because in every movie we see if there is a plot that involves someone of Middle Eastern decent, their role is always the “bad guy”. Meaning that they are always portrayed carrying a bomb, doing suicide missions, and they always highlight 911. Some Americans feel some type of hate for those with Middle Eastern decent even if it’s wrong because they’re not all the same, and the media never shows us the side where we see that they are normal people just like us.
Literacy Reform in the Middle East, highlights the revision of an initiative Biden put into motion that focuses on the Literacy needs of Middle Easterners. The first draft of the initiative received a lot of backlash because many felt it didn’t best fit the needs. The revised plan focuses on five objectives: democracy foundation, democracy assistance group, literacy corps, micro finance initiative, forum for the future. The problem in the middle eastern is that most of the small wealthy countries have a literacy rate of 91 percent. While in the poorer and larger populate countries, more than half of the populations are illiterate. But research has found that majority of the time when a populations literacy rate is low, they are often facing more challenging hardships like poverty, health, and political openness. In order to make a change in the rates, we need to focus on the needs of those largely populated/poor communities. When you meet the needs outside of literacy, then there will be a change in the literacy rates.
I chose an article called “Education reform in the Middle East” written by Linda Vanlaan. In this article Linda talks about a program Sheikh Mohammed wanted to implement to improve the literacy rates and the schools across the nation. The program will not only serve Emirati. Children, but also hopes that it can become the model to public education across the Middle East. The plan was to introduce curriculum that is uses a combination of middle eastern, and international practice. But he also wants to make sure it is sensitive towards the cultural practices of others. Building better school facilities that help motivate active learning. Implementing better technology to help nuance the learning, and having connections with other educational institutions world wide. I chose this article because you get to hear first hand from someone who lives and is from the Middle East, and they can tell you what their country needs. It matters because education reformation is needed worldwide, but also in those countries that are often overlooked. It’s amazing to see people come together to make a positive impact.
