Students at Niles North and Niles West High Schools may soon be the first in the country able to take an accredited Assyrian language and culture course if the Niles Township High School District 219 Board votes in favor of the proposal next month.
“I want to say being an Assyrian myself, I am incredibly grateful to have this course offering,” District 219 board of education president, Naema Abraham, told a standing-room-only crowd during an Oct. 11 board meeting.
“As you saw tonight from people that showed up and from all the public comments, there’s two things that are super important to Assyrians,” she said. “One is their language and the other one is their religion. They’ll show up in crazy numbers for those two things, and rightfully so.”
Abraham is an Assyrian immigrant who came to the United States in 1974 with her family from Syria, and has been a resident of Niles Township since 1979, according to the District 219 website.
There are more than 100,000 people in Skokie, Niles and Morton Grove who identify as having Assyrian ancestry, said Joann Yousif, with the Assyrian National Council of Illinois. She said those suburbs combined have the largest Assyrian population in the state. Assyria was a 12th century empire that included parts of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Lebanon, she added.
“We are very excited,” said Yousif of the new course offering. The families are celebrating this. I hope the kids will feel the same way. Most of them are born here.”
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Caroline Benjamin, the director of student activities at Niles North High School who has worked to help bring the course to District 219, said that while private Assyrian classes are available, this would be the first course offered at a public high school for credit in the United States.
“This is unique because it fulfills a World Language credit,” she said.
“It’s a historic moment.”
Abraham said District 219 has been working for at least seven years to get the proposal to the point where the board of education will take a vote on the course offering. That vote is expected to happen during the board’s Nov. 1 meeting.
“I will forever be grateful for this,” she told the board. “This is something that has been a priority for me as a board member and it’s been very emotional. For the past three weeks I think most of us have been crying at home, and that is really a fact for I think every Assyrian household you will talk to.”
According to a school district memo, the foundational course will be for all students interested in the Assyrian language and culture.
“Students will develop knowledge through an emphasis on reading, listening, writing and speaking,” the memo said. “In addition to the study of language, students will learn about Assyrian culture through food, music, folk dance, discussions, and films. Culturally relevant teaching strategies within this course take into consideration student interests, backgrounds, and abilities. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to comprehend and respond in Assyrian at the novice – intermediate low level and begin to understand the Assyrian culture.”
During the Oct. 11 board meeting, Niles West and Niles North students and members of the community urged the board to vote in favor of the new course.
“It shows that us Assyrians today are trying to further understand our culture and make it more well known,” Niles North junior Mary Shamaan told the board.
“It’s important to me because it shows we aren’t forgetting about the culture and it’s people and hope we’ve gotten here today,” she said. “Not only is this course teaching Assyrians more about who they are, it’s giving non-Assyrians the opportunity to learn our culture and what’s so special about us.”