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Another Lefty feel-good idea gone horribly awry. Wow, it turns out that the best way to make non-English speaking students stop feeling isolated and make them part of American society is to make them speak English. Waiting for La Raza to condemn this as racist in 3...2... Yes, I'm about to go off on another "politics of emotion" diatribe. Like most modern education ideas designed to make the kids' lives easier while they're in school, long-term ESL programs have the predictable effect of hurting the kids outside of school. This is what happens when the showered-up hippies are allowed to...

Pupils who speak English as a first language are in the minority in 13 out of London’s 33 boroughs, according to official figures released Tuesday. Fifty-six percent of children in elementary schools in inner London do not speak English as their first language. Throughout the country, English is not the mother tongue to one in seven elementary-school-aged children. Such high numbers of inexperienced, and in many cases, incapable, English speakers is putting a heavy burden on Britain’s education system. Far more disturbing than this, though, is that it shows how much immigration is changing Britain. The data, from the Department...

Bad times at home keep English teachers here June 15, 2009 Alexis Cuperus, an American living in Korea, says she won’t be going home this year, and maybe not the next year either. Teaching English in the city of Jinju, South Gyeongsang, Cuperus had planned to head back to school and seek her teacher licensure in Texas next March. But, like many expatriates here, fear of sinking into debt without a job to help dig her out have led her to re-evaluate. “I’m definitely in the boat of many English teachers in South Korea,” she says. As North America continues...

I am a compassionate guy. Really. It is just that I vainly called these students’ names week-after-week wondering where they were. I never received a phone call; not even a note. I have no way to verify whether or not their stories of disease, famine, tragedy, etc, are really true or not...

Thus, learning English in China is no longer just important. It is the bare minimum for any serious student. Not learning English here would be tantamount to not studying math or science.Beyond that, Chinese students who want to use their English to further their career will have to do more than just become familiar with the language. They will have to become fluent in it because there is now simply too much competition. English speakers are a 'dime a dozen' in China and companies, especially foreign ones, can now be much pickier when they hire their English speaking staff members.

Ex-teacher accused of stomping Old Glory Reports reacting to confiscation of Mexican banner from student Posted: June 20, 2008 6:35 pm Eastern © 2008 WorldNetDaily A former teacher in Idaho has been charged under a state law that bans desecration of the U.S. flag after he allegedly threw Old Glory on the floor of an administrator's office at Minico High School and stomped it, breaking the pole and ripping the flag from its fastenings.

After years of pleading with the Elgin Area U-46 school board for middle school dual-language opportunities, a group of Channing Elementary parents are in panic mode. “We’re nervous for our sixth-graders,” said Kristen Webb. “After seven years of dual language study, there are no programs in place for them when they head to middle school.” Channing’s dual language program, unique among U-46 schools, was established seven years ago, splitting a select group of students’ school days and subjects, between Spanish and English. Currently, officials said, there are two dual language kindergarten classes, two each in first and second grades, one...

US 2008 Frontruner Huckabee's secret Power : Capacity to stimulate People's Energy ! + More reasons for US 2008 Popular Frontrunner Huckabee For the Substance : See our previous publication ( http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1946974/posts ) + Meanwhile, Governor Mike Huckabee succeeded to win the 1st, and symbolically most important, US 2008 Presidential Election Caucuses at Iowa, almost by a .. Miracle : => Empowered only by People's Energy, with less Money than anyone else : Less than 2m$, while others spend 40, 60 or even more !.. It was the same People who gave to US President GWBush a surprising Victory on...

study released Thursday by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center, reports that in families like the Peredas, for whom Spanish is the dominant language among immigrant parents, English fluency increases across generations. By the third generation, Spanish has essentially faded into the background. Latinos recognize that learning English is key to economic success, according to the study, which was based on survey data collected between 2002 and 2007. "The ability to speak English is a crucial skill for getting a good job and integrating into the wider society," said D'Vera Cohn, a senior writer at...

After a sheet metal plant in Connecticut ordered its employees to speak only English on the job because of safety concerns, five Spanish-speaking workers decided to take the company to court. The employees, who are legal immigrants, say the rule amounts to discrimination and actually makes the workplace more hazardous. "I can think of no good reason for them to institute this policy," said Steven Jacobs, the lawyer for the workers who are suing GC Industries in Deep River, Conn. "It's offensive to people who speak Spanish and is potentially dangerous. It inhibits them from communicating in their native tongue...

Several Utah school districts have just hired a total of 12 new teachers from Mexico. The State Office of Education has been working on the plan for almost a year. This is part of an agreement Governor Huntsman made with Mexico when he visited there a couple years ago. School districts say they're happy about it. The teachers will be filling positions that districts can't seem to staff right now. At the same time, the teachers will help a growing population of Hispanic students in the state. School districts are having a harder and harder time finding elementary school teachers,...

BEIJING - Tanya Davis fled Jizhou No. 1 Middle School one winter morning in March before the sun rose over the surrounding cotton fields covered with stubble from last fall's crop. ADVERTISEMENT In the nine months Davis and her boyfriend had taught English at the school in rural north China, they had endured extra work hours, unpaid salaries and frigid temperatures without heating and, on many days, electricity. Hearts pounding and worried their employer would find a pretext to stop them leaving, the couple lugged their backpacks, suitcase, books and guitar past a sleeping guard and into a taxi. As...

I do not imagine that there are too many labor lawyers posting here on FR however does anyone have an info citing that is it against the law for an employer to "require" you to speak Spanish? Thanks, guys:)

By MELISSA SÀNCHEZ Star-Telegram Staff Writer The nation's leading Mexican-American legal organization filed suit in a federal court Tuesday against the Dallas school district and the principal of a north Dallas elementary school on allegations of segregation and discrimination. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund represents parents who say Preston Hollow Elementary School and Principal Teresa Parker illegally use its English as a second language program to segregate Hispanic and minority students from Anglo students, regardless of their language abilities, officials say. For example, some Hispanic students are being placed in ESL classes even though they can speak...

An Interview with Christina Asquith: About “The Emergency Teacher” Tuesday, November 8, 2005 EducationNews.org Suzi Cottrell Michael F. Shaughnessy Eastern New Mexico University Portales, New Mexico 1) You have recently written a book about “The Emergency Teachers” What prompted you to write this book? Literature is a powerful teaching tool. When I started my first year teaching in a low-income, urban school, I searched for books by other new teachers to use as a model for myself. But I couldn’t find anything that was realistic and written by a teacher. So, when my year ended, and I had learned so...

The Stunned Beeber thread, The thread that started lots of fun and sillyness this could be a hugh and series day so stop by and wish this one year old Happy Beeber day

Valerie Serrin still remembers vividly her anger and the feeling of helplessness. After getting a C on a lab report in an introductory chemistry course, she went to her teaching assistant to ask what she should have done for a better grade. The teaching assistant, a graduate student from China, possessed a finely honed mind. But he also had a heavy accent and a limited grasp of spoken English, so he could not explain to Ms. Serrin, a freshman at the time, what her report had lacked. "He would just say, 'It's easy, it's easy,' " said Ms. Serrin, who...

OPEN COURT is a government-approved reading program for elementry children in California Schools. It is one of only two which are approved. I do not know what the other one is. I do know that this program is creating children who are totally socialist. Basically, it is a program in which students MUST work two and a half uninterrupted hours each day (on just Open Court (This time-requirement is set by a state mandate called, "Reading First."). The program is put ahead of math--the principal at the known school has told the teachers to "forget about math" because they will...

In a textbook example of how firms push the costs of immigration onto local communities, the Anderson Fabrics company is importing foreign workers to Blackduck, Minnesota. The company first tried bringing Hmong workers, but that plan failed. "Blackduck community leaders say there was, indeed, a culture clash. The arrival of Hmong workers was sudden, no one in Blackduck spoke their language and only a few of the Hmong spoke English. With relatively little warning, the school district had to create an English as a Second Language Program for about two dozen new Hmong children." Now the company is seeking state...