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Instruction in Another Language: A Parent's Right?
January 30, 2004The following is a true story.
Mauro E. Mujica reports that when 15-year old Kiet Tran emigrated from Vietnam in April 2002 to a country where millions of citizens speak Spanish, the local school district set about trying to teach him Spanish, using one of the best methods of instruction, which is immersion. Thus for three hours a day, all of his major subjects were taught in Spanish.
Makes perfect sense, no?
The father protested, demanding that his son be taught English in school, because that's what they speak in America.
No, the school district responded, his son would be best served learning Spanish. In no way, shape, or form would school officials be pressured into teaching young Kiet Tran English.
Because of the conflicting pressures of a father wanting him to learn English and a school system doing its best to teach him Spanish, the boy became very frustrated at school and began to suffer emotional problems.
Disgusted, the father packed his family up and moved all the way to a town not far from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, here in the United States. There, Kiet completed a 4-week intensive English program at a campus of the University of Wisconsin, where he won an award for "most improved English" and is looking forward to the coming school year.
Question: Where do you think this story took place?
A) Madrid, Spain
B) Havana, Cuba
C) San Juan, Puerto Rico
D) Madison, Wisconsin
E) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Ok, we tried to fool you with that last one, since Rio is a Portuguese-speaking place.
The correct answer is D).
Yep, the progressive folks in Madison, Wisconsin know that Bilingual Education is best for our new immigrants, or anyone who doesn't speak English. Since Kiet Tran was not only a recent immigrant, but didn't know English, it was off to Bilingual Ed. for him!
You see, "bi" means two, as in bicycle. Bilingual Education means that the school delivers instruction in two languages. One is English, for all the students who don't have Hispanic-sounding surnames* and who "get" all the esoteric references on Frasier.
For everyone else, we have language number two, Spanish. As in all Spanish for all school subjects.
It matters not whether the parents wish* their children to be taught in English, the well-schooled education experts know better. A side benefit is that the school can hire teachers who speak only Spanish, even Superintendents who "dont no English so good."
* (From an article by Andrew Wolf: The Aspira agreement requires all students with Spanish-sounding surnames to be tested for their ability to speak English, and if found to be deficient, are required to be taught in bilingual classes. . . A parent of such a child cannot place their child in regular English-only classes.)
Portions of this entry originally appeared in TheInternetParty.org, dedicated to smaller government and greater individual liberty.
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Spanish-SOUNDING surnames???
My husband is Filipino, first generation born in the U.S. He has a Spanish-SOUNDING surname, but he has NEVER spoken Spanish in his life, and neither have his ancestors. We are always getting visits and calls from Spanish-speaking salespeople, missionaries, and telemarketers, and I am tolerant of these things because they are in the private sector and they're just "playing the odds" to get more sales or converts. But to imagine that I or my kids might be required to do things by the government simply because my surname SOUNDS Spanish??? That is offensive. They make no distinction between people with one direct male-line Spanish-speaking ancestor, possibly hundreds of years earlier, and people who have just emigrated to this country from a Spanish-speaking country. Not only that, but there are people who speak solely Spanish whose names don't "sound" Spanish. This is a horrible criterion on which to base a requirement for an English test.
Wacky Hermit February 2, 2004 01:25 PMMy last name is Quince, and I'm half-Welsh and half-Japanese in ancestry, yet because of my appearance (deep tan, dark hair, brown eyes) and how my name appears on paper, I've had several teachers think I was Hispanic, and one even start speaking to me in Spanish. Crap like that pisses me off to this day, and whoever wrote the abhorrent policy referred to in the article needs to be beaten with a 2x4.
Adrian August 16, 2004 11:45 PM