I read in The Signal (Aug. 1) about the ”first bilingual cohort graduates” and thought about how detrimental it is to those children. Teaching 90% in Spanish and 10% in English is not the smart way to become educated if you live in the United States of America.
While I have great admiration for those who can have simultaneous conversations in two languages, I have no admiration for individuals who have very limited English skills and try to pass themselves off as English-fluent.
My experience has been:
In the 1990s I worked with a young lady who immigrated from Taiwan at 14 knowing not one word of English. She was placed in an English-only high school and, being totally immersed in her new language, she quickly became very English-fluent.
Next door, for a couple of years, lived a young family who spoke very well in both Spanish and English. Their house rules were if an English speaker was in the house they spoke only English, otherwise they spoke only Spanish. If you didn’t know better, you thought they only spoke English. Their children were also very fluent in both languages.
Across the street lives a retired gentleman born in Mexico who was a high school Spanish teacher. He also speaks fluent English with little hint of his Spanish-language heritage. He was very productive in his work environment because of his abilities with both English and Spanish.
I was born in Brighton Beach, New York, and lived two blocks from Coney Island. In the area where I lived there were many East European immigrants who only spoke Yiddish. Before I left, at 13, and as early as 6, I understood Yiddish completely, but now with 60 years of no practice I only remember a few words, one of which is meshuga (crazy).
Children who are Spanish-speaking need the most practice in English, not 10% of their school time but 100% of their school days if they want to become productive American citizens.
Our local school system is taking the easy way out, which I think is just “meshuga” for them to not have their students continually practice English skills, because you need to practice what you want to learn, not what you already know.
Alan Ferdman
Canyon Country
Editor’s note: As noted in the news article, “The Dual Language Immersion Program began with a 90/10 model, meaning 90% of instruction in the beginning was in Spanish and 10% was in English. As students progressed through grade levels, more English was implemented throughout their course work, making it a 50/50 curriculum.”
