Penni, yes, I too am for an intensive transitional program that is effective. In San Francisco we have a Newcomer High School for recent immigrants, which reminds me that this is not a tidy little package for four-year-olds only.
I am not sure what experiences you have had with immigrants spitting on American culture. I have never had any at all. I agree that public education in itself is expensive. I don't see why quality bilingual education would cost much more, however. We pay a huge cost as a society if children are not well educated.
My reference to knee-jerk flag wavers was to people I have heard in interviews in the media, and on the street, saying that all Americans should speak English, period. They object to any government forms or ballots being printed in other languages. However, on a practical basis, it is really hard for older people to learn enough English to understand the intricacies of what they are filling out, or voting for. Certainly, their children and grandchildren will learn English, however.
If I moved to Mexico, I would have enough money for Briana to go an international school, or I would have her tutored in immersion Spanish. Mexico is a very poor country; the United States is not. Some of the people coming here do not have perfect choices, but if they are here, we have some responsibility towards them. We have a federal law that bars discrimination based on race or ethnic origin. That is what makes it discriminatory to treat one group of school children differently than another, and that is the basis of the lawsuit in California. Bilingual education will still be taught here until it winds its way through the court system--several years probably.
Children, after all, are innocent, and are our future. They deserve our very best effort, I think.
If it worked for foreign children to come here and learn English while trying to master reading, arithmetic and history, I would be all for it. I am very pragmatic. But it doesn't! So to me it just seems like the lowest eventual societal cost requires immersion English and bilingual education in the basics until that is mastered.
Sorry if I didn't explain myself very well!! |
