La escuela de Ingles y Espanol está abiertá
Georgia's first bilingual public school is open for business.
By Jeff Emanuel Posted in Featured Stories | Immigration — Comments (19) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Bilingual education has arrived in Georgia, as noted by the Associated Press in an article ("Mom, I'm a niño!") on Georgia's first bilingual public (charter) school.
Clayton County, GA's Unidos Dual Language Charter School, which had a five-year charter approved by the state Board of Education back in April, opened its doors on August 8. The school's website says that Unidos is "the first Dual Language Immersion Charter School in the state of Georgia," as well as "the first school to embrace the values of bilingualism, biliteracy, and multiculturalism."
The 132 students at Unidos get about 70 percent of their reading, writing, social sciences and math in Spanish, and 30 percent in English, according to the AP article, which continues:
Read on...
Contrary to the perception that bilingual education is for immigrants who don't want to assimilate, two-thirds of Unidos students are English-speakers. They include some immigrants' children who are likely to forget their heritage tongue unless they keep studying it and others whose parents want them to learn Spanish because "it's sort of where things are going," Perry said.
The seven teachers, all of whom have at least a basic knowledge of both languages, use only one language in the classroom and rely on hand gestures, miming and lots of repetition to keep the children's attention.
During the first two weeks of school, they've been learning about colors, numbers, the month of August and the letters A and E -- as well as about making friends with children from vastly different backgrounds.
"Kids who've never seen Hispanics before -- they want to eat beside each other, they fight to sit beside each other," said Lynda Quinones, who teaches English at Unidos. "If it wasn't this environment, they'd probably be attacking each other."
One parent, who speaks English "more or less," said she "hopes [her son] will teach her because she was a teacher in Mexico and dreams of becoming one at Unidos. She wants [her son] to be a "well-educated child" and have a job that's "not too hard"."
The pros and cons of bilingual education have been debated for quite some time; as this AP article points out, there are more than 300 dual-language schools in the US, the "first of which opened in 1962 in Florida." As someone who has worked internationally, I recognize the great value of multilingualism. Knowledge of multiple languages can not only make a person more marketable when seeking a vocation, but can be beneficial in one's personal life, as well.
The idea of a bi- or multi-lingual education becomes a bit less rosy when it is considered in the context of (a) ongoing attempts to strip Americans of their national pride and common language, and to enforce postmodern "one world" multiculturalism, which teaches that all other cultures are as good as or better than one's own, or (b) when it is used as a preventive measure against immigrant assimilation.
As the article points out, a "vast majority of Hispanics at all educational levels believe that immigrants' children need to be taught English, according to...the Pew Hispanic Center." Despite what the anti-immigrant fringe may want to believe, this has always been a nation of immigrants; our history as a "melting pot" is a large part of what has made us the great nation we are today. However, that "melting pot" only exists -- and is only successful -- because a large part of that "melting" is assimilation: learning and respecting the language, customs, traditions, and culture ofan adopted homeland. If a bilingual education can (a) assist in the assimilation process by helping students continuously increasing their proficiency in English, while compensating enough with ESL students' native tongue to prevent their falling behind academically due to linguistic deficiency, as well as (b) provide native students with expert, pseudo-immersion second language instruction, while not forcing self-immolating, anti-patriotic multiculturalism on them, then it is allowable that the practice may lead to positive results.
However, in this increasingly multiculturalistic, one-world, kumbayah-ic climate, there appears to be less and less hope that the guidelines of effective and acceptible multilingual eduation will be adhered to, or even paid lip service. The AP article about Unidos speaks volumes about the direction that multilingual education is very intentionally heading:
Two-thirds of Unidos students are English-speakers...whose parents want them to learn Spanish because "it's sort of where things are going," [school founder Della] Perry said.
Yolanda Hood enrolled her 5-year-old son, Thaddeus, in Unidos with the hope he's young enough to learn Spanish effortlessly. She said that will help him thrive in a country that's increasingly diverse.
"We'd be really arrogant to expect everybody to speak English," she said.
Arrogant? To expect immigrants to this nation to learn the national language? Sigh...Only in America.
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La escuela de Ingles y Espanol está abiertá 19 Comments (0 topical, 19 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
Now this is called "Freudian slip". Just the word "fight" alone would send some of these educators flying off the handle in a fit of politically correct rage. Of which they, of course, would have us believe that they're incapable of.
Being human means having to contend with your fellow human beings in order to have something you want. Too bad these nabobs don't know what they're messing with, much as a certain Dr Frankenstein in a book nearly 200 years old...
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"Straight Talk Express"? My bum feet! -- Me, on Senator McCain and other "moderates"
...Spanish-speakers if my classes hadn't been given in Spanish. ...wait, they weren't, and somehow I managed to have a relatively "violence-free" upbringing. Amazing how that happens.
and somehow I have avoided attacks on Spanish-speakers.
If this brilliant teacher rubs off on these children, they not only may be ill-educated and illterate in the business world's first language, they may actually believe danger lurks around every English-speaking corner. Then again, a compliant and ignorant student population ensures future Democratic and RINO voters.
I've been putting it off, something about old dogs and new tricks, but the writing [ in Spanish ] is on the wall. Although born in Brooklyn I couldn't stand having "racist" shouted in my ear due to my ignorance of the new mother tongue.
I do hope they let us stay in the country.
"a man's admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him". Tocqueville
Look, it's clear this is a charter school. And last I checked, nobody was required to enroll their child in a charter school. We here like to talk about choice, so why not give parents the choice to put their kids in these squishy "we're all ok" kinds of places.
The problem is not this school or the program it is following, the problem is when this kind of crap (sorry for the scatalogical reference - I can't think of a better descriptor), is foisted upon everybody by being imposed as the official public education doctrine. It is harmful when Spanish-speaking children are forced into "biligual" education with the (arguably laudable) goal of insuring they don't fall behind while systematcially insuring that they will be a permanent sub-class - unable to ever learn subjects taught in English.
What would be fantastic is if some or other conservative group could put together a charter school that was all about "English immersion" and was open only to children who are non-native speakers. I bet it would be hugely popular with immigrant parents - especially Hispanics - who desperately want their children to learn English. What an eye-opener that would be for the Left.
even if the choice is the Flat Earth Promotion High School--but just wanted to point out this is a particularly bad choice of schools and words by this teacher. I assume that the diarist isn't opposed to charter schools, either.
As for bilingual education, as originally envisioned it was laudable or at least a good argument could be made for it. The word has become code now for monolingual education with just enough English to make it. When fictious, language-based "races" are invented, the Left finds it necessary to keep the mother tongue dominant lest the speaker be lost to the larger society.
you're correct. However, they are required to fund it with their tax dollars. Not exactly what conservatives have in mind when arguing for more Choices.
English Immersion charter school past an NEA owned School Board. As much as I like the idea of charter schools, as long as boards of education control granting the charter, only the PC charter schools have much of a chance for approval.
In Vino Veritas
Otherwise we wouldn't have Paula tiene dos mamás and Aitor tiene dos mamás would we?
Your headline should read:
La escuela de Ingles y Espanol está abierta.
La escuela is feminine.
Shouldn't it be "La escuela de Espanol y Ingles está abierta"?
Or to go all the way: "La Escuela de Español y Inglés está abierta."
as my background is in Latin, not Spanish. However, I did run the title by a few Spanish-speakers to check for vocabulary and syntactical correctness. Alas...
will be the reaction of all these immigrant parents when the school officials tell them they can't mention the banned word "Christmas" nor celebrate it in any way.
This resembles all too much the case of ancient Rome, which even Patrick J Buchanan is pointing out these days, where tribes from an alien culture sensed the weakness of the vast empire beyond their frontier and came pouring in to occupy whatever space was left unwatched. No assimilating, only superficial adoption of the failing empire's customs and policies. Eventually, when the western half of the Roman empire had broken away and was allowed to deteriorate to the point of irrelevance, the barbarian tribes just stopped being "Roman" and carried on their business as though nothing had happened. The Roman fatherland became just another patchwork territory fought over by the barbarian lords and was partially assimilated itself, though the Catholic church would somehow keep the old language going with some modification.
As much as I agree with some of the points raised by Buchanan and others, I think its far too late to deal with the Hispanic colonies amongst us. The first focus of the conflict should be those "multiculturalists" among us who opened the floodgates in the first place, allowing the invasion to begin with. Once we neutralize them, then we begin requiring all incoming immigrants to at least learn English and know what the laws and customs of our nation require of them. Otherwise, they leave once the visas expire.
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"Straight Talk Express"? My bum feet!" -- Me, on Senator McCain and other "moderates"
(Primero, lo siento si no uso todo los accentos españoles a resulta de tenido un teclado ingles)
I also see the multi-faceted nature of this educational environment as being complex and difficult to analize. Will teaching both English and Spanish influence the students in such a way that they learn that both are acceptable means of communication? Will one language be perceived as "correct" in the America that is to come?
He oido de muchos profesores y anuncios que hoy en dia, los trabajadores y estudiantes que estan tratando obtener trabajos será considerado en frente de otros candidatos a resulta de tenido la capacidad de hablar dos lenguas.
The fact that some of you (maybe including students of Unidos) can read the previous paragraph stands as evidence of a country that is changing.
For me, I didn't begin learning Spanish by immersing myself in a Spanish-speaking country. Although doing that was entirely more effective than learning the language in a classroom...I can't imagine the HUGE advantage that native Spanish-speaking children are going to have when they are tought English in a classroom and then use it around Georgia.
Although I can't decide to give a thumbs up or down to this approach to deconstructing the language barrier, I will say:
Keep an eye on Unidos. Your future boss might have been enrolled there as a child.
I was eating breakfast at a Jack in the Box here in the Austin area one morning. Like all the fast food places around here, it has all ESL employees. Some mad kicker comes strolling in with a JitB bag he got at the drive-thru and says something like: "This heah owdah's all meyessed up. Don' y'all have nobody aroun' heah who speayuks dayum English?" I was about peeing on myself.