The Article of Times Writers Group: Innovation needs to continue in St. Cloud school district

Written by: Abdikani Hussein The article of Times Writers Group: Innovation needs to continue in St. Cloud school district written by Dick Andzenge is baseless on factors and evidence. Its focusing on one aspect of complex and it is ignoring the whole truth. Somali population in St. Cloud is growing rapidly and there is also cultural misunderstanding between their white Caucasian classmates in district 742. Somali students now make up about 10 percent of the student population in the St. Cloud Area School District 742 and their numbers have been quickly growing. The entire district has about 10,000 students. In addition its true Wars and political instability from Somalia and South Sudan have brought them to St. Cloud, MN which is unfortunately was not their place of choice. First, your opinion is prejudice by calling "they have never lived stable lives" and disrespecting the whole communities of Somalis and South Sudan. Secondly, you mentioned that "they brought to St. Cloud many traumatized refugees and their children." the question is have you examined the whole communities of Somalis and South Sudan’s scientifically , theoretically or clinically research for the purpose of understanding Refugee trauma or labeling the whole community as "they brought to St. Cloud many traumatized." Finally, you have claimed that "many of their parents are uneducated and not able help their children with school work." I am sure any parents who mastered at least two languages are not uneducated. Most of these parents who u labeled them uneducated are bilingual and educated. In my acknowledgement there could be a language barrier, and that does not make these parents uneducated or unworthy. The two key factors to understanding Somali settlement experiences in St. Cloud, MN are the limited human capital that they came with and their financial obligations to kin left behind. First, human capital and overall educational levels and language and other knowledge and skills. While Somalis who came to the U.S. prior to the collapse had higher educational levels, the majority of newcomers had good levels of formal schooling. The opportunities available to the majority of Somali youth to acquire formal education in a predominantly nomadic society were severely limited. But, most Somalis were educated through an English curriculum in the Northern parts of Somalia and another group that were educated either in Italian or Arabic in the South, formal educational institutions were Highly valued in Somalia. Somalia is a poetry nation and Somali language script was adopted in early 1970s and the expansion of educational opportunities to a larger segment of the population in towns and cities. Educational opportunities involved primary and secondary education in Somalia with highly post-secondary educational prospects. Consequently, even Somali refugees who had some post-secondary education in the home country came to the Western world with very limited English language and highly skilled in Math and Science. The Somali and South Sudan community deserves integrity, apology, respect and dignity from DR. Dick Andzenge.