Posted on 06/12/2005 9:44:42 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
"the staff did a wonderful job of instilling positive attitudes about Mexico and Spanish."
I wonder what attitudes they instilled about the USA?
How does immersion in Spanish (for the English-speaking students) help the state test scores for Hispanics?
And I confess to not having read the article. ;^)
I like Spanish. I like the fact that this school assigns lots of homework and makes the kids sit still in class. Sounds more like school when I was a kid. I wish we had been instructed in a second language from first grade- that would've been pretty cool.
My girlfriend is Swiss, she grew up with three mother tongues and is fluent in French and English as well- so five languages all together. I didn't begin learning a second language until I was 24. Working on my third now, Spanish, but I will probably have to move to Spain for a few years to reach the fluency level I desire. Would've been nice to get an earlier start with languages.
Hmmm. I took this to mean that math and so forth was being taught in Spanish. I could see how a Spanish speaker's math skills would improve quicker if he learned it in his native tongue. That's what I got out of it anyway.
---Working on my third now, Spanish, but I will probably have to move to Spain for a few years to reach the fluency level I desire. ---
Just move to California. No need to go to Spain.
I would need to move to the States in order to move to Cali. Spain is much closer to where I live now.
All of this sounds great to me.
I think we need to make the english requirement of the citizenship exam and REAL test with no public disclosure of the test questions. (lawyers have them as part of FOIA and coach the client to memorize the answers)
Perhaps we should have each state adopt an english only language amendment.
I believe ALL voting ballots MUST be in english only.
English is the language that unifies the nation. These schools only seek to foster division.
Positive PC goofiness. Positive news about Spanish and Mexico crammed down the throats of impressionable kids, when what they should learn is English, which study after study has shown is the ticket out of poverty. Oh, well, Islamofascist sleep cells will probably blow up the west coast before it becomes completely integrated with Mexico. (The ACLU should be helping those poor Lodi Muslims, who've clearly been racially profiled and persecuted.)
Craig said she felt the school focused too much on making students sit still, on disciplining them, on assigning homework and on teaching language skills through drills...
Actually, that sounds like a good thing.
That's great if it leads to employment opportunities.
Actually, it's coming to my house.
I am fiercely committed to making sure our baby learns both languages as she masters the spoken word. There are too many fine people that speak Spanish, and too many people who have contributed nothing to the success of America that speak English, for me to ignore either in my daughter's education.
Nuestro Mundo is translated as "our world". Their world, indeed.
They plan to dump tests altogether, no doubt. It's more of that positive outcome plan. If kids feel good about themselves, it matters little if they learn to read or write. Self esteem is all that matters, not intellectual achievement. So if Hispanic children fail to achieve in school, it can't be cultural (or the influence of Hollywood, MTV, etc and lack of respect for schools and learning.) God forbid. No, it's because they're forced to learn English. This mindset is the logical outcome of 'America is the root of all evil' thinking. Envy, hatred, failure to thrive...it can't be anything I'm doing. It's your fault! So you change.
Maybe they're going to make the English speaking kids take the test in Spanish, to be "fair".
And it's more of Mexico integrating with the US. Somehow, though, we become MiniMexico and not the other way around. Although why in the world the US should be thrilled at becoming more like a third world country, adopting their language, mores, etc., escapes me. Why not get Mexico to raise their standards, educate their poor, clean up their country? For some reason, that's not on.
Similarly, intense use of English in the early grades will produce the best English-related outcomes for native Spanish speakers. And, if your parents are illiterate in their native language (e.g.,illegal immigrants), you need English immersion even more.
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