the danish model rears its ugly head

i love the danish model. NOT.

honestly, there are times when i'm less than fond of the danish model. i mean in general, not the union model being referred to in this headline (i just couldn't resist using it, since it fit my ironic mood). even down to the word nydansker - new danes - in the little headline below the big one. that term has, in the past decade, taken on a negative connotation. and really, does anyone expect to be allowed by the old danes to actually become a new dane? i don't think so. the danes are too much of a tribe for that. i could go on and on about this, but today i'm thinking about one aspect of the broader danish model that i'm not that keen on...and that's blind allegiance to bureaucracy.

sabin will move over to what is effectively middle school next year. in connection with this, there is a form we had to fill out. after name, address and social security number, the next questions are "mother tongue" and "land of origin," followed by whether or not danish is spoken in the home. it is unclear how this information will be used.

i wrote to the principal yesterday, expressing worries about the purpose of that information. i said that i hoped that the fact that we speak mostly english in our home wasn't going to be used to discriminate against or exclude my child in any way.

i promptly received the answer that the reason it was there was that the school had to send a report about two-language (tosprogede - another word that's taken on a very negative connotation in danish) students to the municipality every year. she assured me that it was not, under any circumstance, used to discriminate or exclude children - tho' she offered no proof of this and provided no information as to what it was to be used for. she also offered no information as to the municipality's purpose in gathering such information on a yearly basis. i can make some guesses about this, with extra funding being at the top of the list. she further advised me to contact the municipality if i wanted further information.

if you recall, this isn't the first time the school has tried to pigeonhole my child with objectionable questions about the languages she may consider native. in that instance, they were also very poor at explaining the purpose of the questions.

and i've thought a lot about that. and i think the answer is twofold. 1) danes trust blindly in their bureaucracy. if the municipality wants a yearly report of what languages the school age children speak in their homes, then they must have a reason for it, so we'll just provide them with that information without asking or even wondering how it will be used. 2) the danish higher education system does not include a set of general education credits which force students to have at least been exposed to basic rhetoric and argument-building. therefore, the principal of the school thinks she actually answered my questions and concerns, not realizing that "the municipality asks for it" is not an argument and does nothing to persuade me that there are not ulterior motives behind it. nor does her proof-less assurance that the information is not used for discrimination or exclusion. these are not arguments, but i have encountered such statements so many times that i have come to believe that danes believe they are arguments. because they don't know any better. me, however, i'm grateful to the TA who taught my rhetoric course at iowa because what i learned from him is still helping me recognize bad arguments on a daily basis.

pushing my buttons

this week, sabin's class it set to participate in the PIRLS study - an international study on reading levels in the fourth grade.  after reading both the danish university that is behind it here and the PIRLS site itself, i am no closer to an answer as to what the purpose of the test really is. there is a lot of vague information about how the information will be used to improve policy and decision-making regarding the education of children. that, i could support. but i wonder if that's it.

we received a questionnaire today that we should answer as parents in connection with the study. it's that questionnaire that has me worried. a few examples:

3.) which language(s) did your child speak before s/he started school?

i would be ok with that, but the answer choices are:
a.) danish
b.) turkish
c.) arabic
d.) serbo-croatian/bosnian
e.) punjabi (is that even a language? isn't it a place?)
f.) other

the same languages are listed under the question of "what language does the child's father/mother primarily speak?" are these particular languages politically motivated? and to what end?

and i have to say that with all of the news of late of the crimes and misdemeanors of the Danish Integration Ministry, i am concerned about the purpose of these questions. those languages were clearly deliberately chosen and i'd like to know by whom and why? those cannot possibly be the languages universal to the international version of the test. so to what purpose do they want to know about those particular languages? by participating, do we contribute to further tightening of the noose around foreigners?

i don't want to be one of those uncooperative parents, but seriously, shouldn't we have more information about what we're contributing to? what purpose it will serve? and who has ordered it? i think we all need to get better at questioning authority. and i'm starting here.