¿Habla Español? Your kids may soon

Skagit Valley Herald ^ | 12/01/03 | STEVE HOWIE

[B Knotts]

Part of this is bilingual education for "migrants." You have to parse carefully (and read between the lines).

[Eala]

Why not Russian instead. There are more Russian speakers in the world than French and German speakers combined....

It would be fairer if they chose Scottish Gaelic (aka Ga\idhlig); so few native speakers left, nobody would have an unfair advantage, tha mi a' smaoineachadh.

[dandelion]

Whoops, sorry - Texas already doing it 32 years ago, ceptin' it was trilingual down in New Braunfels...

Espanol, Deutsch, and Texan.

[ReagansShinyHair]

A generation of bilingual hamburger flippers with high self esteem.

McDonald's needs workers. They must be behind this!

American jobs you can get if you are NOT fluent in English:

1. Maid

2. Fry cook

3. Migrant Worker

4. Professor of Chicano Studies

American jobs you can get if you are fluent in English:

1. Person who hired maid

2. Person who bosses around fry cook or owns restaurant.

3. Person who bosses migrant worker.

4. Professor of a real field of study.

[JamesA]

And who's fault it it? Seems to me if our founding fathers wanted us speaking anything other than English they'd adopted it...They didn't...just another exhample of the delution of American culture.

[HennepinPrisoner]

If they are going to do a blingual program, why teach Spanish as the second language? So the kids are qualified to clean hotel toilets and work in other service industries?

They should learn Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, or German. At least it would give them an advantage in a white-collar job.

[FITZ]

Part of this is bilingual education for "migrants."

It's so unfair because English speakers do much better on standardized tests than Spanish speakers ---- the test scores of the Spanish speakers are no better when the tests are given to them in Spanish ---- so to make things fair, make all the kids speak Spanish.

[ReagansShinyHair]

They should learn Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, or German. At least it would give them an advantage in a white-collar job.

But that would not provide easy, non-results-oriented-jobs for unqualified "bilingual" hispanics.

[Victoria Delsoul]

¿Habla Español?

I do, Italian too, and all the French I can tolerate. :-)

[FITZ]

My kid is in dual language --- they only learn Spanglish (border or street Spanish) because the teachers don't speak proper Spanish and they pick up all the bad words ---- they think they can get by with the "ch" word ---like the "f" word in English and everyone is a pendejo. But if you live in a Spanglish speaking region, it isn't a bad idea to at least know what others are saying.

[sarcasm]

Our own version of the Berlin Wall would be very useful on the Mexican border as that is where the problem lies.I wasn't aware that we had a problem with illegals crossing the Alaskan border - maybe you could enlighten me.

Bush seems to be able to fund any and every program other than border security - he's a complete disaster in this regards. He has also cut back on interior enforcement of immigration laws - even Clinton did a better job.

[HennepinPrisoner]

"WE GRADUATED FROM BURLINGTON SCHOOLS BILINGUAL EDUCATION PROGRAM!"

[FITZ]

If they are going to do a blingual program, why teach Spanish as the second language?

When your workers say "pinche gringo" don't you want to know what it means? People from other countries make an effort to learn English but we've got millions coming over now who have no intentions of learning English --- it can be helpful to know what they are saying --- but it doesn't mean you have to speak a foreign language in your own country.

[Poohbah]

Our own version of the Berlin Wall would be very useful on the Mexican border as that is where the problem lies.

And after you build a 2,100-mile-long Berlin Wall--n small sack of coin, that--the problem will lie elsewhere, particularly on the coastlines of America. You going to wall those off, too?

[Dog Gone]

I wasn't aware that we had a problem with illegals crossing the Alaskan border - maybe you could enlighten me.

Don't be a smartass. You can close off one entry point entirely, and guess where the next entry point will be. If you guessed "the next easiest point of entry", you win.

[HennepinPrisoner]

People from other countries make an effort to learn English but we've got millions coming over now who have no intentions of learning English --- it can be helpful to know what they are saying --- but it doesn't mean you have to speak a foreign language in your own country.

My parents have friends that put their child in public elementary school in South Texas (Laredo). To this day, he has somewhat of a Spanish accent even though both of his parents spoke perfect English (he is in his 40s).

This is because all the teachers he had spoke broken English, his friends all spoke Spanish and broken English, and so he adapted their accent somewhat.

In the development years, I would not want to risk my child developing a foreign accent. It does hamper success.

[DustyMoment]

"Research says that's the best delivery model," Superintendent Mack Armstrong said."

WHAT!!!!??????? That's the dumbest thing I have ever heard. In what drug-infested world that this twit lives in is this the "best delivery model"? When we're talking about learning, the more the message is muddied, the less the student learns. When learning focuses on two different languages, rather than the ability to read, speak, perform mathematic operations or write fluently in one language WELL, the children will receive, at best, a mediocre education.

I think these so-called "educators" need to go back to school - to be taught with their own theories and see how many turn out to be the "best delivery models".

[sarcasm]

Mexicans are going to cross the Alaskan border?

[DeFault User]

Too bad about the street Spanish they're learning because it is a beautiful language. What's more, if you know Spanish you can also understand a lot of Italian and Portuguese.

In the 60's the government had an immersion program for language teachers at various universities. Participants became fluent in 6 weeks. The Peace Corps has done the same thing (with many languages) for years.

If the school is teaching any Spanish grammar, it's the only exposure some students have to grammar--thereby, they can get a clue as to what English grammar is. None apparently are taught any grammar now.

[sarcasm]

Poohbah the defeatist.