Posted on 04/29/2002 10:50:37 AM PDT by vannrox
By Michael Barone
How would you feel if you were told that your kindergartner was assigned to a classroom in which instruction is given entirely in Spanish, even though he doesn't understand a word of the language? And if you were told, further, that your local elementary school does not have any English-language instruction in kindergarten and grades one through three?
You would probably react pretty much the same way that Veronica Gonzalez and Stephanie Daniel did when faced with just that situation in Edison School in the Santa Ana Unified School District in Orange County, Calif. Gonzalez is a third-generation and Daniel a third-generation American; both speak fluent English and little or no Spanish.
And both were outraged. "On the first day, the teacher was speaking Spanish," Gonzalez told a group of parents who gathered to discuss the issue in a neat, wrought-iron-fenced, American-flag-flying Santa Ana neighborhood. "Homework was assigned in Spanish. They were singing songs in Spanish." Added Daniel: "On papers they sent home, the directions were in Spanish. My son knows the months of the year in Spanish, and 'Happy Birthday.' "
All this, even though, says Gonzalez, "We requested an all-English class ... .I went up to my son's kindergarten teacher. She told me that there were no English-only classes in the school. 'If you want one, go to another school.' "
That was not so easy. Transfers to schools offering English-language instruction were turned down; they were outside the zone. Parents who want their children to go to the so-called fundamental school line up to wait overnight outside the school district headquarters to try to get a spot. Parents can get transfers if their child has a sibling in another school, but that leaves many out.
The problem is a personal one for Veronica Gonzalez and Stephanie Daniel, and seems to raise only local issues.
Yet it's also a situation with national implications. In the 2000 census, more than 1 in 6 people under 18 living in the United States were classified as Hispanic–a census-created category with no rigorous definition that is based on self- (or parent) classification.
Many of these children are the sons and daughters of recent immigrants who speak little or no English; others, like Gonzalez's son, are the sons and daughters of multigenerational American citizens who speak little or no Spanish.
For three decades many of these children were shunted into so-called bilingual education classes, with instruction primarily or exclusively in Spanish, for as long as three, five, or even seven years.
The result has been that many Hispanic children have not mastered English sufficiently well to qualify for higher education or good jobs. Some have been separated from the larger American culture and the opportunities it offers.
This practice was supposed to stop in California after voters in June 1998 passed Proposition 227, which limited Spanish-language instruction to one year unless parents sought and received waivers.
But some districts, like Santa Ana Unified, have resisted and undermined 227.
Santa Ana has symbolic importance here: It is one of the most heavily Hispanic enclaves in the United States. Santa Ana's population of 338,000 in the 2000 census was 76 percent Hispanic; the student body in the school district is 92 percent Hispanic.
The apparent culprit in Santa Ana is local political operator Nativo Lopez, elected school board president by a narrow margin in 2000.
Gloria Matta Tuchman, cochairman of the drive that led to passage of Proposition 227 and a Santa Ana teacher herself, tells the story: "Following the passage of Prop. 227, we have school board member Nativo Lopez holding parent meetings at school sites, telling parents about the merits of bilingual education and convincing them to request parental waivers for this program. We have had the majority of the Santa Ana School Board members allowing him to conduct such meetings, even though it might be viewed as unethical and coercion of parents." The number of bilingual students in Orange County, which fell from 17,180 to 6,954 in one year after the passage of 227, has now risen to 7,982, with 6,302 of them in Santa Ana Unified.
A new principal in Edison, according to the parents at the recent meeting, increased the number of Spanish-language classes and reduced the number of English-language classes and called parents repeatedly to ask them to sign waivers to keep their children in Spanish-language classes. Evidently, Lopez is determined to strengthen Latino identity, though he has a rather odd concept of it; he accused school board member Rosemarie Avila of not being a Latina because she is partly of German descent, even though she was born in Guatemala and many Latin Americans have ancestors who were from countries other than Spain (the No. 1 example: Mexico's President Vicente Fox).
Vivian Martinez, who organized the parents' meeting, tells of other problems. "Our good teachers, the experienced teachers, are leaving the school because they're so upset," she complains. "Many of our teachers now have emergency credentials."
She says that in 1999 Lopez said that he would get rid of Anglos in the system. And, Gonzalez says: "Last night he said he would get Spanish at the junior high schools and high schools." Her husband adds, "They [the kids] will get jobs in the fields or in the car wash."
The parents have other complaints. Beatriz Salas, a 1999 immigrant from Mexico City, was not able to get her teenage son in special-education classes. She says that Lopez offered to help her in 1999 if she agreed to join his organization, Hermandad Mexicana, and get others to attend its demonstrations. Tony Garcia, a recent Santa Ana High School graduate, was harassed by school administrators after he refused, as student body president, to sign blank purchase orders. Lopez and Hermandad have a fragrant past.
Hermandad was accused of vote fraud in the closely contested 1996 congressional election between Republican Robert Dornan and Democrat Loretta Sanchez, and, in 1997, some $500,000 of Hermandad's government funds were unaccounted for.
Martinez and the other parents have responded to what they regard as bad public policy the old-fashioned American way–politics. They have launched a recall drive against Nativo Lopez. They need 8,600 signatures from Santa Ana's 57,000 registered voters to get the recall on the ballot in November, and then they have to beat Lopez and Hermandad. It's by no means clear whether they'll succeed.
But the fact that Hispanic parents in one of America's most heavily Hispanic cities have gone to such lengths–have taken on a powerful and adept local political boss–to oppose bilingual education is evidence that at least some Hispanic parents oppose bilingual education and Spanish-language instruction. The Hispanic organizations–many of them with no significant membership and financed largely by establishment foundations that support bilingual education and try to keep American children in Spanish-language instruction as long as possible–might do well to take a trip to Santa Ana.
Of all the European countries that get off easy, considering the brutality of their colonialism, it's Spain.
I just spent a week at Children's Hospital in LA with a friend whose daughter is critically ill.
(See prayer request at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/665591/posts?page=1,50)
I was really disgusted by all the welfare mothers coming for their "free" health care while chattering away on their cell phones. I thought I had been transported to Mexico. My friend and her husband have been out of work since August, but they were responsible enough to purchase health insurance.
If you are looking for boneheads in California, you'll find more quicker by looking for politicians and school boards than you will by ethnic profiling.
Which might be why Catholic schools are popular in SoCal. Even among gringos of all colors and non-Catholics.
IMHO
My prayers for your sister's child.
Someone please translate that to Spanish and send that to every Santa Ana household in both languages.
One of my neighbor's a couple years back was Latino. He was from Chicago and his parents were from Mexico(legally). He can speak both English and Spanish without any problem at all, and his parents also made sure that both they and he learned ENGLISH. They are doing alright for themselves as well.
And needless to say, they have a big problem with those that refuse to learn English, and probably a bigger problem with people like Gonzalez here who think all these students are good for is working at the car wash.
Ain't that true.
Then how come most Latin Americans in Peru, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, etc. of Amerindian or mixed ancestry. The average Mexican is racially more Indian than Spanish. If the Spaniards were so brutal, how come there are so few North Americans of American Indian heritage compared to Central and South America, in which most inhabitants (depending upon the country, of course) are either partly of 100% of Amerindian ancestry?
And you would be right, if your intent was to do well in your adopted country. Methinks the intent here is to keep your old language to use in the new country you plan on your adopted country becoming.
One other personal example is a friend of mine who was born in Mexico and had 8 brothers. His parents wanted them all to succeed. He came here as a junior in high school, not speaking a word of english. His mother worked as a housekeeper and his father as a grounds keeper. Mario told me that he really had to work hard because he didn't know english and that he would have to read things 2 or 3 times to understand it. He and his 8 brothers all graduated from college. Mario is an engineer. He also married a woman from Mexico with a 7 year old daughter. She now speaks perfect english, as well.
We can have high expectations and expect kids to succeed or we can have low expectations and assume that kids won't succeed. A post from yesterday (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/674752/posts) illustrates societal pressures that perpetuate failure.
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