[CholeraJoe]

Wouldn't America be a great place if it just weren't for all the Sp*cs, Ni%%ers, and Ra&#eads. /sarcasm

Military Academies are now requiring 3 years of high school Foreign language. Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese or Chinese.

The world has changed since the 50's. Deal with it.

[DeathAngel]

Indoctrination?

[hedgetrimmer]

Dual language programs in California have been a disaster for the kids who were used as part of this social engineering program. It was such a disaster, Californians passed a proposition to outlaw bilingual education. Of course there was a loophole and many schools still practice it.

With dual immersion spanish english programs you end up with kids illiterate in both languages. You also end up with kids being taught border spanish instead of proper spanish because they will hire anyone (even those without credentials) to meet the bilingual hiring quotas.

The english speaking kids who get put in these classes end up bored to death, because although the instructors promised to spend 50% on english and 50% on spanish, they almost always spend 90% of the time speaking spanish, so the english speaking kids do not get their fair share of the teaching.

I know because my school district is the poster child for outlawing bilingual ed.

[Porterville]

Better Spanish then French... thank God!! At least this nation has a solid SPANISH background in Georgia, Florida, Missouri Mississippi, Arkansas, All of the Louisiana territory, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, California, the Pacific Ocean, all have Spanish origins... what convoluted foggy spectacles must one look through to think that without the Spanish influence the history of the USA would be completely different.

[ZULU]

This is INSANE. But why should the liberal perspective on speech be any more rational than their views on any other subject??

There are scores of different immigrant groups in the U.S. Why should Spanish be given any preference over the others?

The main glue that cements so many disparate ethnic groups together in America is our language - English.

English is a language best suited to the modern world. Its vocabulary is extensive, more so than most other languages, certainly to a far greater degree than Spanish, which is verbally impovrished by comparison. English is facile, adopting other words into its vocabulary with ease, and employing Anglicized compound Latin and Greek stems into technical terminology which is frequently only achieved in other modern lauguages by stringing together common roots in that language into ridiculous chains of nearly unpronouncable and undecipherable maxi-compound words.
English is capable of refinements of nuance which are alien to many other languages.

If anyone comes here, they should be compelled to learn the language spoken and understood by the greatest number of individuals and ethnic groups - ENGLISH.

[vladog]

Constitutional amendment to make English the official language of the US, is they only way to go. I didn't speak this gibberish when I was overseas and I won't speak it here. However I do understand enough Spanish to know when I'm being insulted.

[DoctorMichael]

Una mas cerveza, por favor.

Donde esta el banyo?

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

Great. The kids I teach can barely read and write English competently, and now some genius thinks it will be a good idea to halve the focus on the English language? John McWhorter has an excellent book out about the collapse of formal speech and writing over the past 30 years, and one big reason is education. It would be different if modern schools were already doing the job well; then maybe we could add something to their plate. But when I get 11th-graders who come in with a 7th-grade reading level, those students need to be focused on learning English first...

[PJ-Comix]

Hey! How do you get that upside-down question mark and that tilde going on your keyboard? ¿Do you need a special keyboard? Mine won't do it.

[FreeReign]

A dual language program, also known as two-way immersion, is different from traditional schools that teach students who speak languages other than English. In a dual language school, fourth-graders might learn math in Spanish and social

Dual language programs are a terrible idea.

English is really the national language. Students should never be without the option to take a course -- any course -- in English.

[hispanarepublicana]

Although I don't the day ought to be split, let me say that the ability to read, write and speak Spanish (although Latin would have been better for these purposes)was of ENORMOUS HELP when I took my SAT exam, because of Spanish's relation to Latin and the verbal section of the exam which requires the knowledge of the origin of words (for instance, if you don't know the meaning of a word, you can kind of guess by breaking down the parts of the word into their Latin origins. It also helped later in science classes in college.

Of course, it wasn't a panacea, and having the critical thinking skills that gave me the ability to make the Spanish-Latin-English connection was a huge help too, because plenty of my Spanish-speaking friends failed to use this handy "tool" in their SAT exams.

I think this country's educational system should require that at least Latin to be taught in order to save our very English language.

[petercooper]

Absolute crap! You are in America - learn English!!

Anyone see the Lowes Christmas commercial where a woman says "Que bonito" or something in spanish. The commercial is a multicultural love-fest. You are in America - learn English!! It's ridiculous.

I will never shop at Lowes.

[Protagoras]

Abolish government schools and the problem disappears.