There’s a lovely book we can all learn from called ‘Friends Forever.’ It contains a precious picture of two kids playing together with a caption that reads ‘We play together; we stick together’.
The only problem is that the kids are sporting kippahs and ‘plaited’ hair. Oh yeah, and it’s being used in a Dubai private international school.
Apparently, teachers report that students react negatively to that specific picture.
The story gets kind of funny and revealing from there. The complaints were brought to Dr. Obaid Butti al Mohiri, the director of Curriculums Centre at the Ministry of Education. He claimed he’d investigate the matter to see if the complaints were legit. However, he was rather angry at having to deal with the problem:
What should we do when we do not have enough staff to review textbooks in more than 400 schools countrywide?…We lack staff to follow up these books at schools as well as compel schools to send these books before distributing them to students…What we could only do a year ago was to ask all school managements to review and check these books and submit a written undertaking along with copies of these books to the Ministry that they had done so.
So the United Arab Emirates can’t afford to hire proper censors for reviewing the books used at their school? Or do they just not care enough to ban books with pictures of happy yids? Perhaps if they weren’t so busy building tall towers and tennis courts…
Thanks to the Khaleej Times.
Andy
4/5/2005
please post a picture of this book and the page with the picture, or a link to it.
Esther
4/5/2005
Are the two children CK and Muffti? Jus’ wonderin’.
Dave
4/6/2005
You obviously don’t read Israellycool. I’ll remember that for next year’s JIBs..:)