In a move that would put county schools on the cutting edge of foreign-language instruction, officials are planning to roll out an Arabic program in the next school year.
The instruction would start with an after-school program at Meade High School this fall and continue with a beginner class the following year.
"It definitely is one of those up-and-coming languages that's gathering a lot of interest," said Jennifer Hernandez, coordinator of world and classical languages for the school system.
Learning Arabic would prepare students to work in fields like intelligence-gathering and the military at a time when American government and business are entrenched in Arabic-speaking countries.
The move also follows a broader effort to increase the number of languages offered in county schools. Chinese, for example, made its course book debut in 2007 and is now taught in 11 middle schools.
Meade High was selected to pilot Arabic because of its new Homeland Security Signature Program and the upcoming Base Realignment and Closure process, which will relocate skilled military personnel - and their children - from around the country to the region. Also, the school is on Fort George G. Meade and near organizations, such as the National Security Agency, that use Arabic.
"If you're looking for careers in the future, NSA's right here, and they're looking for linguists," said Bill Sheppard, a Meade administrator. "(Arabic) is certainly up the alley of the Homeland Security Signature Program, but we've only scratched the surface of what we want to do."
Hernandez said she's still waiting to hear about funding from a Startalk Grant, which is offered by the federal government to support Chinese and Arabic instruction. If her application is accepted, the grant could bring county schools up to $20,000.
But even without the grant, Meade will likely begin offering some Arabic instruction during the 2009-2010 school year as a co-curricular, or after-school, activity.
Students would have access to the Rosetta Stone computerized language program and, officials hope, a teacher of Arabic; officials are advertising for the position now. Then the language would be offered as a regular course for credit in 2010-2011.
"We don't want to build too much too fast," Hernandez said. "We want to make sure it's done completely right."
Teaching Arabic can be tricky. According to Clarissa Burt, a professor of Arabic at the Naval Academy, Arabic teachers across the nation are locked in a battle over whether it's better to teach standard Arabic alone or in conjunction with a dialect from a country like Egypt or Iraq. She said that while standard Arabic sounds overly formal and sometimes isn't understood by native speakers, teaching a dialect would require officials to choose from among several that have political associations. Also, instruction materials aren't available for all dialects.
"I would bet it would be easiest at this stage to teach Egyptian," Burt said. "But it really comes down to who you hire. The teacher should be able to construct their own materials in their own dialect."
Students said that, regardless of the approach, a chance to study the language will likely interest those eyeing careers in the military and other international fields. "I plan to work in homeland security (after graduating), and my mom told me to take Arabic," said Phebe Ferguson, 15, a freshman at Meade High. "I think it would come in handy."
Cory Cayton, also 15 and a freshman at Meade, said he would even be willing to stay after school if the language was offered as a co-curricular. "I would definitely be interested," he said. "Especially in a country we're having issues with, it would help us learn about the country."