~ Arab and Jewish children from the Hagar community in Beer Sheva visited the Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem for a day of fun ~ About the Hagar community The Hagar day care, kindergartens, preschool and school offer the community in the south of Israel a unique educational framework, based on the values of Jewish-Arab partnership and friendship and providing a high quality education and a warm, supportive environment that enables every child to develop his or her unique talents. The school brings together Jewish and Arab children in an egalitarian and tolerant space, which emphasizes respect for the other and the will to live together in peace and understanding. The school program is committed to democratic and humanistic values and to the awareness and learning of the respective cultures, identities and languages of the two communities. At Hagar, we teach the children to respect others without losing their own story and identity. The bilingual approach is at the basis of the encounter created by the school. According to this approach, language is not only a vital tool of communication, but also the most meaningful layer in every persons cultural identity. The Hagar educational framework implements this approach in imparting to each child an enriching education of the highest quality. Our educational curriculum combines the core program of the Israeli Ministry of Education with a unique program of bilingual education. The schools schedule of classes and extracurricular activities takes into account this integration and is built in the prolonged school day framework. Every class has two teachers, an Arab and a Jewish teacher, who co-teach the classes in full cooperation. The bilingual model requires teaching in small groups, , which enables personal consideration and attention to the needs of every student. While the class of around 25 pupils looks pretty much like any other of its kind countrywide, what sets this group of children apart and makes this school unique, especially in the South, is that half of the children are Arab residents of Beersheba and half are Jews, even though it’s almost impossible to tell who is who. “We are not two communities, we are one community, and it’s called Hagar,” states Hagit Damri, executive director of the Arabic-Hebrew bilingual school, which started as a kindergarten in 2007 and opened its doors as an elementary school at the end of 2009. “The school is a part of the Hagar community, and most of the children who learn here have parents who are involved in our community, too,” explains Damri, who was among the institution’s founding parents. The school was set up by a nonprofit organization of the same name, made up of Jewish and Arab parents, teachers, community organizers and other concerned residents of Beer Sheva who hope to create successful relations and equal opportunities for Arabs and Jews in the Negev region. “We have many people in the area involved in this community. Not all are parents – some are students – and we try to get together once a month for activities and picnics, we celebrate the holidays together, and it’s a very strong community,” says Damri.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 03:32:00 +0000
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