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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grainne who wrote (23160)	7/1/1998 7:48:00 PM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

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! How can we explain the incredible success of Asian students who with little, if any, bilingual assistance at all, (at least here in Dallas)often surpass the achievements of American born students? There are many factors involved in learning, and I'm not sure that blame for the failure can be placed solely on the process. There is also the family and the cultural emphasis on the value of education and hard work. Also, I think--hmm-let me see--as you know I'm NOT politically minded at all so I could really be off-base on this!---that to say we are discriminating and treating children differently because they are of different ethnicity is twisting the meaning somehow. At least it FEELs that way to me. We are not denying any child the right to the education we offer. However, that's being extrapolated to mean that the education has to be offered as equally accessible in all ways to all students. I don't argue that you have a valid argument that children who don't speak English are "handicapped" and that this could fall under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. While I think this is an admirable goal and I love you for it, I have the same problem with it that I found with IDEA. It becomes so burdensome, so invasive, so impractical, that I'm not sure it's realistic. It seems to be where we decide to say-yes-I am responsible but here's where I draw the line. When a parent demands that his incontinent child be mainstreamed and that the teacher must let a class sit idle while she cleans the catheter of the incontinent child or the district hire an aide to do it, does this fall under equal opportunity? it's a huge expense---many of the IDEA requirements are. Do we hire teachers who are bilingual in every language to meet the need of every child who arrives at the door? Or do we decide that a certain percentage of that particular nationality must be present first? ANd then aren't we discriminating against the minority races? We do open our schools to all, that's the starting point and I believe it's the minimum required by the Constitution. EVERY student has special needs. We cannot meet them all. It's a question of balance---but again, where I think we might be losing our way, others might think we are finally finding it. I'm not sure this is a right-wrong issue as much as a matter of where one falls on a scale. We are in total agreement that children deserve our best effort. it's adults who get it all screwed up.