[peyton randolph]

Remember the Dallas school board member that proposed hiring illegals.

I know many legal bilingual professionals who would be glad to teach an hour or so a day in addition to their regular jobs...but as long as DISD is controlled by corrupt/incompetent administrators and unions, there is no way in Hades it will happen. I don't agree with this guy's proposal to hire illegals. However, something does need to be done. If we're not going to deport the 50%+ of the students who are illegals, shoving them in a classroom without English skills, with a teacher who isn't bilingual, and passing them from grade to grade as illiterates, serves no legitimate purpose.

[bboop]

Two cases: we had friends who lived in Chile. The girls started school totally without Spanish; before the year was out, they spoke it fine. They didn't need teachers to speak English to them; they caught on.

I am tutoring a little Chinese boy; they speak Chinese at home. His dad told me, 'Last year he didn't speak any English; I think a teacher at his preschool spoke Chinese, and so he didn't need to. This year he is in Kdg; his English has improved dramatically.

What's wrong with immersion?? It is considered THE way to learn a language later on; all the missionaries use immersion. But it is not good enough for little kids, who pick up languages the easiest of all of us?

I think it is ok to have someone who speaks another language for the parents; the moms, esp., don't often speak English. But for the kids I think it is a waste of time and it works against what you want -- bringing them into OUR culture, teaching them English, helping them belong.

[RobbyS]

And of course the problem is the absurdity of accepting the children of undocuemneted aliens. But that is driven by the greed of businessmen for cheap labor and of the rich for houshold servants.

[Regulator]

shoving them in a classroom without English skills, with a teacher who isn't bilingual, and passing them from grade to grade as illiterates, serves no legitimate purpose

Oh, OK. It's our fault, not the parent's fault. We have to make extra effort to accomodate the actions of their parents, who:

• Broke into the country against the law
• Settled in the country against the law
• Work typically without paying taxes unless they falsified the documents which citizens ordinarily have (more "against the law" stuff, but who's counting at this point, right?)
• Use the services the taxpayers voted to provide for themselves, not those here illegally
• Shove their children into the schools the taxpayers pay for (note: they did the shoving, not the schools)
• Don't bother to help their children by attempting to learn and speak English at home - after all, they're still nationals of another country, right? Why would they?
• Depend on ethnic agitation groups and submissive types to be apologists for them so they can get away with all this

And you say "something should be done"? I agree. Reverse Plyler v. Doe, enforce all the immigration laws on the books, and the situation will cure itself. No need to turn the schools into a giant babysitting operation for the children of Mexico, which is precisely what has happened in California and Texas, and soon pretty much everywhere else in the United States.

[tertiary01]

The answer is IMMERSION. It worked for every previous generation of immigrants and those from Hispanic countries don't seem any less capable of learning.

[ozarkgirl]

What is DISD?