5:00 AM - February 26, 2009

Local/NY - Takeru V. Maeda

However, the caption below revealed, what many felt as, a racial attack on our president. The caption read: "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill." As a result the editorial was faced with many accusations, that the newspaper advocates racist slurs toward our president and our people by potraying him in the cartoon as a chimpanzee.

The following day, Al Sharpton, the Baptist minister and civil rights activist, issued a statment, claiming the cartoon to be "troubling at best, given the historic racist attacks [on] African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys."

"Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama.... and has become synonymous with him, it is not a reach to wonder: are they inferring that a monkey wrote the last bill? The Post should at best clarify what point they were trying to make, or in fact reprimand their cartoonist."

The governor of New York state, David Paterson, told a local television station that it was "very important for the New York Post to explain what the cartoon was intended to portray."

In response to Al Sharpton's statment, Col Allen, the newspaper's editor-in-chief, made comments referring to Sharpton's love for media attention.

"The cartoon is a clear pardoy of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut," said, Allen. "It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist."

During last years election campaign at Republic rallies, there were sporadic appearances of T-shirts portraying Obama as Curious George, a chimp from the well known children's book, while similar stuffed dolls were circulating online shops as collectible items.

For Sean Delonas, the Post's cartoonist, this isn't the first time he's been targeted by social groups for his suggestive drawings nor has been accused of bigotry; for he was once nicknamed by the New York gossip blog Gawker as "the Picasso of prejudice."

Some of his offensive portrayals have faced criticism for centering his cartoons on gay characters, some of which he has linked homosexuality to beastiality. The pressure group Gay and Lesbian Alliance Agaisnt Defamation have, in the past, called his work "juvenile" and "immature."

The Rupert Murdoch-owned Post endorsed Obama over Hilary Clinton during the Democratic primaries, but endorsed John McCain during the presidential campagin.

5:00 AM - February 26, 2009

 National/US - Takeru V. Maeda

Fanta Konneh, 18, is one of those students who have never stepped into a classroom even in her home country of Guinea, where she grew up after her family fled Liberia. She is the first girl in her family to go to school but not the first in her family to attend college or graduate from high school.

"Just the boys go to school, so I always knew I was left out," said Fanta who's a student at Ellis Preparatory Academy in South Bronx. "But here, I am trying. I can say many things I did not know before. I can learn things more."

It is common for many of the students, who have never stepped foot in a classroom before, to be illiterate even in their native languages. More than half of the estimated number of students, like Fanta, first arrive to school as older teenagers and are put into the city's high schools with peers preparing for state exams required for a diploma.

"They don't always have a notion of what it means to be a student," said Stephanie Grasso, who's an English teacher at Ellis Prep. "Ceartin ideas are completely foreign to them. They have to learn how to ask questions and understand things for themselves."

Many of these student's background range between various circumstances faced in their homeland. The largest number of these students have come from certain rural areas of the Dominican Republic, some of whom couldn't attend school becuase of the far distance from home while others had to work to support their family. Other students have come to escape religious persectuion in Tibet, civil wars in West Africa, and extreme poverty in Central America.

In a recent study by the city's Department of Education, the number of these students has risen by 50 percent from 10 years ago. In 2007, the graduation rate of these students was 29 percent, which is less than half of New York City's overall graduation rate of 62 percent.

Sadly, some of the students who were able to attend city Schools have gone on to return home or disappear entirely without a trace. A research project was started by Elaine C. Kelin, a linguistics professor at City Universtiy of New York, where the project followed 98 chosen students in 2007 but by the next year, only 48 of them were located. While some had returned to their home countries, others had left school for unskilled jobs or have disappeared. Many of these students had the great diffculty of trying to learn 10 years worth of academics before being able to earn an independent living.

"This is the very literal definition of slipping through the cracks," said Professor Kelin.

According to Maria Santos, director of the city's office of English Language Learners, small schools aren't necessarily preferred compared to the large schools that have a big number of such students, which can create programs to help.

However, Professor Klein and other experts agree that there is yet a defined way on what works best for these students, but claim that the school system over all fail to serve these immigrants well.

"You can't teach them about evaporation  if they don't know how water is constructed," said Klein."On the other hand, they already know the concept of a color, but they just need to know the name of the color. They already have the basic knowledge and they have been able to think quite well, thank you very much."

Ellis Prep, which is an acronym for English Language Learners and International Support, was created by Norma Vega, a social worker and former principle at Bronx International High School. Vega recalled a young woman from Macedonia who spent four years studying at Bronx International  but still couldn't read better than a fourth grader at 21 years of age, and was given a speical education diploma. Another studnet, whom she recalled, was a young man from West Africa, who came to school everyday until he was 22, then stopped attending abruptly.

"If they were all sent to regular high schools, they would simply be lost," said Ms. Vega.

The Ellis Prep school has the very same graduation requirments as other high schools in English, math, history and science along with artistic classes like violin or dance. Furthermore, the school also presents a "defense of learning" project, once every six weeks, talking for up to almost an hour about many things. For example: how a rocket launches or the gods of Hinduism, then take questions.

Even with the intimidating work that lies ahead of these students to make up for what they've missed out on the for most of their lives, many of them at Ellis have very big ambitions for their future. Many of the teenagers speak often optimistically and with certanity about futures as nurses, architects or chemists. However, some believe that many of these students won't be able to see their ambitions come to life.

"The most difficult thing is that they won't all be able to make it," said Ms. Vega. "their work ethic is impeccalbe, but they may not be able to get there."

Fanta Konnech's cousin, Morry Bamba, 18, entered school for his first time when he came to the United States three years ago like his cousin.

"I knew how lucky I was coming here." said Bamba. "When I was in Guinea, all the kids I knew who went to school said it was the best."

Even though he spoke with ease, Morray's academic progress has been somewhat sluggish.

"You give him a Cat in the Hat book, and he may not struggle with that, but he can barely read," said Ms. Vega.

For students who have come and gone before her, Ganta is a fine example of the far reaches the students made and how much more they must adhere in order to come out successfully.

"I was not knew body in my class and luch time," she wrote in a memoir for Ms. Grasso's class, which explains how lost she felt when she first arrived. Soon she was able to make friends, Fanta wrote, and "how to do communicates in school now I know."

Fanta spoke with confidence, in an intreview, about a future in business. "If I have money, maybe I can send it back to Africa," she said. "I can help my mother. I can come to school for that, too."

However, Fanta hasn't returned to school since New Year's, even after a fall semester of perfect attendance. Ms. Vega was informed that Fanta is five months pregnant.

"Immediately they changed," said Ms. Warsame of her sons. "They wanted to wear shorts. They'd say, 'Buy me this.' I said, 'Where did you guys get this idea you can control me?'"

Warsame's sons enlightened her that certain things are different in America. Upon discovering this, Warsame enrolled her boys into the International Elementary School, a charter school of more than 500 pupils located in downtown Minneapolis and founded by leaders of the city's large East African community.

Charter schools, which are publicly financed yet independently run, were established with the aim to improve academic performance. In another light, most charter schools are perceived to be places of havens for immigrant families, believing that their children are protected or preserved from the American youth culture that permeates through all large district schools.

Between other public schools and the Twin Cities International Elementary School--and it's partner middle school and high school--share similar curriculum structure and International school, it seems that it helps kids embrace their cultural identity within an ethnic environment. The girls say they can freely wear head scarves without being teased, the cafeteria follows the dietary requirements of Muslims, and in every classroom there are East African assistants who understand students and their needs who, for some, have spent time in refugee camps. Students at the Twin Cities International School come from African nations, such as, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalila and Sudan, along with a small number of students from the Middle East.

Amongst a surge in immigration that's been a factor to Minnesota's reshaping in the last 30  years, the International schools are among 30 of the state's 138 charter schools that focus on students from specific ethnic groups, such as the Hmong and Latinos, who many immigrant parents shared universal emotions when first coming to this country, aspiring for high education and fearing for their children living in a new environment.

"The good news is that immigrant kids are learning English better and faster than ever before in U.S. history," said Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco, the co-director of immigration studies at New York University and co-author of "Learning A New Land - Immigrant Students in American Society" (Harvard Press, 2008). "But they're assimilating to a society that parents see as very threatening and frightening. It's anti-authority, anti-studying. It's materialistic."

There are some critics who have commented that these types of charter schools contribute to a growing re-segregation of public education and that they foil with the idea of public schools as the foremost institution of the "melting pot," the very cause of finding common American idenity among immigrants from other countries.

"One of the primary reasons that American society supports public schools is to give everyone a solid civic education," said Diane Ravitch, an education historian, "the sort of education that comes from learning together with offers from different backgrounds."

Yet still, according to Dr. Suarez-Orozco, in most cases most new immigrants will become isolated in public schools, followed by alienation and thus, failure to graduate. Minnesota's strong charter-school trend provides immigrant parents something of a voice and influence in their children's education, especially parents who have felt disagreeable with their children becoming Americanized. This also reflects on the parents' enthusiasm to take part in democracy.

"What the parents are saying," said Suarez-Orozco, "is, We want our children to assimilate, we want them to acculturate, but we want to be proactively engaged in shaping that process."

Ali Somo, a 70-year-old father of three at the International Schools, simply stated in his own way: "We bring our children here because we want them close to us so they don't get lost."

"Getting lost in America," explained Somo, "means losing your culture, your language, your identity. It means acting like teenagers the parents see on the street--wearing baggy jeans, smoking, using drugs, disrespecting elders.

Fellow parents nodded in agreement following Somo's statement, in the crammed school library where many parents gathered for a meeting. Jelil Abdella, a father, explained his cause for sadness that his two grown children, who attended large district schools, did not know how to speak Somali.

"They're neither American, nor Somali," said Abdella. "I don't want to make the same mistake with my younger children," he added, "I want them to keep the good things we used to have back home--respecting their parents, helping each other, respecting their elders."

Furthermore, another father, Mahamaud Wardere, followed with this to say: "it is important that  they all know they're American. It is equally important that they know they're Somali."

The discussion on dual identity  has always been something that the International Schools worked to encourage.

"The other day a spider feel from the roof and my son picked it up," said Somo, referring to his 13-year-old son, Hussein. "'What do you call it in English,' I asked him. He told me. How to say it in Oromo--I told him myself. How to say it in Arabic and Somali--he learned it himself. He was able to say the word for "spider" in four languages. With that kind of linguistic talent, he can work for America anywhere in the world."

Dr. Suarez-Orosco also added: "What these parents are doing, in taking ownership of their children's schools, is as America as apple pie. They're doing what soccer moms and dads in Lexington, Mass., and Concord and Cambridge do day in and day out. They're modeling for kids the story of acculturation and how it works."