Posted on 07/05/2006 7:46:38 AM PDT by srotaG adirolF
CARBONDALE - Adrienne Davis graduated from Carbondale's Roaring Fork High School in 1999. She is now a teacher at Edwards Elementary School where in a few years all the classes will be taught in both Spanish and English.
Starting this fall, all kindergarten classes will be dual language. And as those classes move up, eventually the entire school will be bilingual.
It is a solution that is working in Edwards, Davis said, where formerly about 80 percent of the kids in the elementary school were Hispanic.
"It is definitely a positive thing," Davis said. "The kids are all playing together. They're all in the same shoes, (because) they know what it feels like not to know the language. They have more appreciation for each other.
"It's so neat to see the parents getting together talking about how their kids are doing. It's a union of cultures," she said.
Dual-language learning is a two-way immersion program where native English and Spanish speakers first learn to read and write in their native tongue, while being exposed to oral lessons in their non-native language. The kids are then taught other subjects like math, science and social studies in both languages.
The Roaring Fork School District has had a dual-language program for more than a decade at Basalt Elementary School. And Carbondale may be next.
"We're piloting a program in kindergarten in a modified form," said Crystal River Elementary School Principal Karen Olson. "We're looking at the benefits. We've talked to Basalt and Edwards ... a lot of parents and teachers have brought this up and want their kids involved."
Crystal River already has the staff to accommodate dual-language learning, Olson said. And the school will have one more bilingual teacher this year - Kenny Teitler, who was instrumental in bringing the dual-language program to Basalt in 1994.
..ok, lets see how it's working in two years, maybe then someone can translate "how I lost more than 50% of equity in my home investment" in Spanish
Doogle
Adrianne Davis,"It's so neat to see parents getting together talking about how their kids are doing.It's a union of cultures."I'm teary eyed.How heart warming,i feel so warm and fuzzy inside/sarc.Sounds like Adrianne got her monies worth of indoctrination in college.
Northern Alabama is the same way.
You left off the sarcasm tag.
Agreed, WP. If those kids were legal US Citizens, we should demand they learn English and teach it to them, for their own future good. If they're illegal aliens, they shouldn't be here in the first place.
Simply *enforcing our existing laws* would solve the problem.
Blame the voters. Colorado had a chance to ban bilingual education, as was done in California, but failed to pass the initiative to do so.
You only need one language in this country, and the rest of the World for that matter. Even the filthy French can understand this point to the chagrin of Cheraque
Should of been Chirac.
PUKEMAO
The Left's fixation on "whites" is nothing less than a violent mental pathology.
Instead of getting angry (which i am, too) How do we stop this stuff from happening? How?
Instead of getting angry (which i am, too) How do we stop this stuff from happening? How?
Certainly, they do learn other languages better earlier. However, why Spanish? Would it not be just as cool for the kids to learn Japanese? French? Farsi? Personally, I vote for Latin because it helps you in virtually any language, but I know that's not a popular view.
susie
I have recently started getting recorded messages in Spanish on my cell phone!
susie
No - you have it backwards. English will be increasingly important for those in Latin America who want to trade with us.
People forget that English is slowly taking over the world. English is the primary language used on the Internet, in scientific journals, in medicine, in popular culture and music, it is used by air traffic controlers all over the world.
In 30 years everyone on the planet will be speaking English.
Exactly
Other than opting out of the school systems that foster this nonsense, I have no idea.
How much is this going to cost the taxpayers?
In America we speak English, that is our language. If you don't like it pack your bag and go back where you came from.
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