Press Release A080511b
May 11, 2008

First civics class yields success for juvenile detainees

CAMP CROPPER, Iraq — Sixteen students of the Dar al-Hikmah juvenile education center, or “House of Wisdom,” completed the school’s first civics course May 1, and their teacher could not have been happier with their performance.  

During the 10-day civics course, students are taught a basic understanding of the importance of family, national service, Iraqi citizenship and the composition of the Iraqi government.

“The program is very, very important to [detainees] at this age,” said “Mohammed,” the primary Iraqi instructor of the Civics class.  “I saw this after the first group.”

Although initially skeptical of the students’ ability to grasp the course’s social and governmental concepts in a short period of time, Mohammad said  the results of the course’s examination shocked him 

“They knew all the answers,” he said.  “Even students who needed help reading or writing answered correctly.” 

The civics course is poised for a larger enrollment in its second installation.  Following the graduation of the 16 juvenile detainees from the first class, the second iteration, scheduled to begin later this week, has already received a voluntary enrollment of approximately 25 participants.

Dar al-Hikmah, which provides basic education to more than 500 juvenile detainees at the Camp Cropper Theater Internment Facility on Victory Base Complex, also provides programs in Arabic, history, science, geography, math and athletics.

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