This is an essay I wrote some time ago about bilingual education. It
continues to accurately portray my feelings about the subject matter.
The truth about "Bilingual" education
"Bilingual" instruction methods first appeared nearly 30 years ago.
Although designed to ease the thousands of non English-speaking children
into the American educational system and prepare them for instruction in
regular English classrooms, in reality, the program traps students in
segregated classes, denies them opportunity to learn English, and greatly
impedes these students' educational and career prospects.
Today, approximately three-quarters of all "limited English-proficient"
(LEP) students are Spanish speakers. Therefore, it is not surprising that
in practice bilingual programs stress Spanish-language teaching where
Hispanic children spend up to 80% of their day being taught exclusively in
Spanish in a segregated classroom. In fact, at some schools employing
bilingual instruction methods the children hear English only during
recess, lunch, PE, and music periods. Nearly a dozen states with large
number of LEP students force schools to teach children in this manner.
Why is it so bad?
Because Hispanic children spend their entire grade school in these
programs, they generally do not achieve the solid grounding in English
they need to excel in high school. For the most part, they are unable to
take advanced college preparatory courses-courses that are geared towards
English speakers and which are critical for gaining acceptance to
institutions of higher education. The "graduates" of bilingual education
are generally stuck in remedial classes with no hope of graduating. Not
surprisingly, many of them drop out. The dropout rate for all Hispanic
LEP students in the United States is a whopping 50%! (That is much higher
than for any other group.)
It is painfully clear that bilingual education is failing and will
continue to fail. Realizing this, even the immigrants have recently begun
to turn against this system. But this is easier said than done. Often
schools enroll children in these programs without notifying parents,
explaining that the program uses mostly Spanish, or admitting that the
program is voluntary. In some instances the school administrators go as
far as to harass or intimidate parents if they try to remove their
children from the program. Parental requests that their child be taken
out of, or never put in, bilingual education often fall on deaf ears. The
requests are ignored or simply rejected and the children placed in
these programs despite parental objections.
Maintaining the status quo …
Two years ago, the Center for Equal Opportunity commissioned a nationwide
poll on the specifics of bilingual education. According to the survey,
almost two-thirds of Hispanic parents wanted their children taught English
as quickly as possible and more than 80% preferred that their children's
academic courses be taught in English.
It is clear that Hispanic parents want a quality educational program that
produces results. Unfortunately, opposition to change comes from all
sides. Despite failing to achieve its goals and despite being opposed by
parents in general, bilingual education continues to be supported by a
surprising number of educators and politicians. Even Hispanic leaders,
including Lawyers for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education
Fund (MALDEF) support it. After three decades of federal and state
funding, bilingual education has built its own constituency. Textbook
companies, universities, researchers, and, of course, attorneys, all have
a financial stake in maintaining the current system. In California, for
example, there are 15,000 bilingual teachers-all of whom are getting
$5,000 stipends-and there are plans to hire thousands more! California
alone spends more than 300 million on what one can call a jobs program for
Spanish-speaking teachers.
Why it should be abolished…
When considering the very existence of bilingual education, one needs to
consider two points. Over the course of time, millions of immigrants came
to these United States and their children did just fine when they were
immersed in classrooms where only English was spoken. They came to
understand it and in time mastered it. Why do we expect any less of
Spanish-speaking immigrants? The proponents of bilingual education often
say that they are just trying to ease their transition to English. But no
matter how much money they throw into the program, they are disgruntled.
They always want more. They always say that extra funding will make the
program successful and when they get it and see no improvements they ask
for more. Bilingual education is a program that is trying to fix what is
not broken.
Second, the proponents of bilingual education often say that bilingual
education helps to preserve the culture of an immigrant's native county,
helping them grow up to be knowledgeable about customs and traditions of
both their native country as well as those of America. They fail to
understand one simple fact, however: Preserving native customs and
traditions, as admirable as it may be, should not be a school's purpose.
A school is an institution whose purpose is to teach, leaving customs and
traditions to be taught where they ought to be-at home.
The parents already know these facts. Now it is up to the legislators and
teacher's organizations to realize that it is impossible to prosper
without learning the language spoken by 97% of the population. Hopefully
when they finally realize that without learning English immigrants are
confined to low-skilled jobs with little or no opportunity to advance it
won't be too late.
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