Posted on 07/25/2013 3:52:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
"I think you should check out the APEX program," my high school counselor Mrs. Workman suggested.
APEX stood for Area Program Enrichment Exchange, and involved several L.A. area high schools, including Fairfax High. Intended for "advanced" students, the program allowed them to take courses not offered at their home school.
In my case, I had exhausted all of the Spanish courses at Crenshaw High, the predominately black inner-city school I attended. But Fairfax, predominately Jewish, had higher-level courses and would accept me.
"It'll be a way for you to continue your Spanish -- where, I see from your transcript, you excel. I'd suggest you do this," she said.
"How does the program work?"
Each morning, she explained, a school bus would pick up the APEX students -- by definition a group of supposedly "high-level, college-bound kids" -- and bus them to their chosen school. We would attend two classes each morning at the APEX school, after which we would be bused back to Crenshaw.
"Where do I sign?"
Mrs. Workman laughed, "I expect you to do well."
About that I had little doubt. After all, I made mostly A's, and did particularly well in Spanish. I ranked sixth or seventh in a class of 250. Of course I would do well.
But I didn't.
I knew I was in for a ride when I walked into class that first day at Fairfax. The teacher greeted me in Spanish. But I noticed that everyone in the class spoke in Spanish. I don't mean the halting way I spoke, with iffy grammar and conjugation. These kids were fluent! I was shocked.
Despite the stack of Spanish course A's I had piled up since middle school, I never really thought achieving fluency in a class setting was possible -- unless you lived in Mexico or Spain or had Spanish-speaking parents.
But it became clear that from the time these Fairfax kids took their first Spanish course -- and, for that matter, every other course -- teachers demanded far more from students than Crenshaw teachers demanded of us. The Fairfax kids also demanded more of themselves. And they were matter-of-fact about the high expectations their parents had for them.
When I came home from that first day at Fairfax, I cried.
"These A's I'd been getting," I told my mom, "were crap. Probably C's at Fairfax. It's as if I'd been playing Little League baseball -- and now I'm playing against the Dodgers."
"You're right," she said, "it's not fair -- but do your best. You'll rise to the occasion."
I got an F on my first test. This was followed by more F's and D's. There was a lot of oral class participation, and the teacher and students were patient as I butchered the language. They felt sorry for me.
The final exam, which accounted for most of the grade, was a written book report on Don Quixote -- also to be given orally, without notes, while standing in front of the class. Holy bleep!
I busted my butt, worked my way through the book, and wrote and memorized my presentation. I checked and rechecked my report. Then I practiced it in front of the bathroom mirror. Never had I worked as hard on anything in school. I vowed not to be embarrassed.
I spoke third. After each student spoke, the no-nonsense teacher immediately critiqued the speech, corrected grammar and syntax, and offered ways to improve.
My turn. The walk to the front of the class took forever. "I'll show them," I said over and over. I cleared my throat and let it rip. I knew I had rocked when, after I finished, no one said anything, not even the teacher. Who was that fluent guy in Larry's body?
"Bien, senor Elder," the teacher finally said. "Muy bien."
I told my mom what happened. She didn't use the word "voucher," but she wondered why parents couldn't choose the school to which they send their kids, rather than the one -- good or bad -- that happens to be the closest.
"Doesn't seem right," said Mom. My Fairfax experience, she said, "shows what happens when kids are pushed. I can't do anything about this. But maybe someday you can."
Hopefully, I just did.
In 1910 it was thought that Argentina was on the brink of world leadership & was the country of the future.
Today, he would be immersed in Spanish just walking outside
Rachel Jeantel will have a rude awakening the first day of Law School.
Then will she throw a fit about how unfair it is.
I would rather learn Korean!
Just out of curiosity how much practical,"hands-on" experience do you have with various regions of the world? I have seen,up close and personal,poverty of several shapes and sizes.That includes "Latin" poverty.Not Spanish,mind you,Portuguese.I've seen slums ("favelas") of Rio and Sao Paulo into which the Brazilian *Army* dares not enter *during daylight hours*.Let me know what *you've* seen...what *you've* experienced.
Your offensive statement was with respect to the learning of a language per se. It remains a dumb and offensive statement.
I was challenging the usefulness of learning a *particular* language,one language.Learning Japanese? Not a bad idea.German....Dutch....French...Mandarin...Cantonese,ditto.Spanish? Great,maybe you can get a gig on Sabado Gigante or as a translator in a hospital ER.
Your use of statistics is also totally misleading and the comparisons are silly and naïve. Spain’s GDP per person is higher than New Zealand’s
Over the last 30 years Spain has enjoyed a *huge* inflow of EU cash courtesy of the taxpayers of Germany,Britain,the Netherlands,Ireland,Sweden and Finland.New Zealand has no such sugar daddy to whom she can turn.
..and about the same as Israel.
Israel being a nation that's been on a war footing since the day it was founded.Spain hasn't been on a war footing since the 1930's.
To sum up,let's engage in a grand challenge.You move to Mexico,or Spain,become fluent in Spanish.I'll move to Germany and learn German.Let's see who benefits more...financially...in our efforts.And no fair working for a company whose world headquarters is located in an English speaking country.
Argentina could have been great but they seem to prefer socialism, and that will crimp any style
From about 1860 classical liberalism with its support of the private sector and encouragement of investment and wealth creation was the dominant political force in Argentina. The commercial values of Buenos Aires and its merchant elite won out over the armed agrarians gaucho forces. The massive immigration from Europe and the rise of the packing house economy generated the first wave of European marxist and syndicalist groups organizing the new industrial proletariat. After World war 1 the Army began to look for a new mission since the era of border wars, internal fighting and Indian fighting was over,and discovered fascism and corporatism with its rightwing neo socialist ideas. Unfortunately these two trends became dominant in Argentina and are to some degree linked to the traditional statist/authoritarian attitudes of Latin culture.
A good point.South Korea is also among the world's most prosperous,most advanced nations.And being fluent in Korean just might qualify one to be helpful in talking sense into those medieval clowns north of the 38th Parallel.
Plus a country that went from dire poverty to G20 in one generation must have been doing something right along the way. hint: It wasn’t even a democracy for most of that time.
Since Argentina came up, I guess I could ping kartographer
Truth is something I easily recognize, so I know what he meant.
You were the one who raised a different, but interesting question, basically, why is Spanish spoken by those in areas of poverty, illiteracy, and crime.
I speculated that it was happenstance. You may have a different theory, so I was interested in hearing what it was.
I still question the underlying premise, but it does not appear to me that pursuing the matter would be worth the time invested. Therefore I cede the ground to you both.
I also have done work in Brazil and Argentina. Their slums are astounding in their size and are frightening - but then so are the slums Bronx, East St Louis, New Orleans, Detroit, DC and the Southside. I have also worked in Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Norway and Switzerland.
Your contempt for Spanish-speakers and learners is still illogical and racist.
By the way and so there is no misunderstanding, I am for English as the official US language and for a real English language requirement for citizenship.
Very true, but not back at the time of which he is speaking.
In our district certain rising 8th graders are offered the opportunity to take 9th grade math and Spanish Our daughter opted to take the math, but laughed at the idea of taking Spanish. Her comment to the guidance counselor when she said thanks, but no thanks was along the lines of "I get a Spanish lesson every time I walk into Corner Mart." In this county, she's right, and that is partly why she chose French. She had considered Mandarin, but that is only offered online and she didn't like the idea of the isolation of that course deciding she could do that at home with her preference - Japanese.
Cool.I've stayed in the Kilimanjaro Hotel in Dar Es Salaam.At the time it was the most luxurious hotel in the entire country.But drive 30 miles from the front door (in any direction except east,which puts you in the Indian Ocean) and you see poverty all around you that could easily be featured in a Save The Children Foundation ad or a National Geographic Channel documentary.
And as for your trip to and from your beach house can we assume that you fly Aero Mexico rather than drive through Matamoros,Neuevo Laredo,Juarez,Guadalajara or Mexico City?
And P.S.,...from Wikipedia:
"The population of La Paz has grown greatly from the 2000 census and now stands at 215,178 people.This growth is largely because the city enjoys one of the highest standards of living and quality of life in Mexico, with average wages in the range of 27 USD per day, when compared to the country overall where minimum wages stand at closer to $4.25 USD per day."
Four dollars and twenty five cents a day.
This pattern is repeated hundreds of times each year, no doubt. What a shock this must be to the kid who thinks he's on top of the world.
Every year a number of big city school districts have zero to a handful of National Merit semi-finalists. Some religious/private schools have 10, 20, 30+. That's a single school compared to a district with tens of thousands of kids having zero.
Probably most of the kids at these schools could beat an inner city valedictorian academically. It's pitiful and sad for the top kids, some of whom could REALLY have been top kids at a good school.
Having taught in a city high school many years ago, teaching there is like trying to swim in molasses or sprint with concrete boots. Beneath the rah-rah atmosphere at some of these schools is the "avoid work at any cost" mentality many of the kids have. So, the top kids still rise to the top but are not challenged because they are race horses mixed in with snails or bricks. It is easy for them to win because the competition is so weak.
I went to France as an exchange student during my senior year in high school (and never graduated high school as a result). The French schools were so much more challenging academically; I simply was not able to perform at their standards. Of course, in France, kids have to pass an exam before they can proceed to high school, and take exams to pass from 11th to 12th grade and to graduate. I wished so much that I would have been raised in France and been able to benefit from their education system.
I only went to a public high school there. My French family told me that the public schools weren't very good; they wanted their daughter to have the best education possible, and sent her to a private boarding school. I wish I could have had such opportunities! Still, I can't complain--I did get a PhD eventually.
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