Latino groups charge Boston is screwing kids whose native language isn't English

By adamg - 2/5/10 - 12:38 pm

Their answer: Withhold millions of dollars in federal funds from Boston public schools.

Comments

Complicated question

By Sock_Puppet - 2/5/10 - 2:00 pm

I've heard from Hispanic parents that it's best to keep it a secret from the school system if you speak Spanish at home - otherwise your kid will be ghettoized in a learning English classroom and you won't get your choice of schools. One mother told me that she didn't want her kids learning Spanglish at school, and would rather teach him proper Spanish at home and have him learn proper English in school. She, and other parents I know, lied outright on the registration forms to make sure her kids would get into the English-only kindergarten of her choice.

Because of these discussions, I imagine that a good proportion of the Spanish-speaking kids who are in English-only classrooms are there by their parents' choice. If all Spanish-speaking kids in English-only primary education are being counted as having been "failed" by the school system, then that is padding the count. It sounds to me like someone is trying to get some job security in the face of a lack of desire for their special services.

Interesting information

By johnmcboston - 2/5/10 - 3:06 pm

Some interesting background Sock. Of course the first thought at reading this is "learn English". Not sayign that to be rude, but I do have relatives who 'came over on the boat' speaking their foreign, and at that time learning English to fit in was the thing to do. Today it seems the push is to maintain your culture more than fit in, so that's a bit of a change.

How to learn is also a question. It's ironic that when they talk about foreign speakers learning english here, they say bi-lingual classes are best. But when you ask about an english speaker learning a foreign language, complete immersion is the answer. hmmmmm.

It's ironic that when they

By NotWhitey - 2/5/10 - 3:26 pm

It's ironic that when they talk about foreign speakers learning english here, they say bi-lingual classes are best. But when you ask about an english speaker learning a foreign language, complete immersion is the answer.

Funny, that.

Not hard to understand the

By anon (not verified) - 2/6/10 - 6:17 pm

Not hard to understand the difference, actually. Kids in school are learning other subjects, like math, science, etc., and can keep up in those topics at the same time they are learning English if they are in a decent bilingual program, eventually switching over to all instruction in English when they have the language down well. On the other hand, when an English-speaker who lives in this country is trying to learn a foreign language, it is normally recreational or perhaps for business, but not because they are living in that culture and going to school in that language, so a total immersion approach works - it's the best way to learn a new language, unless you happen to be a child trying to ultimately learn enough to graduate from high school.

My (not very extensive)

By anon (not verified) - 2/5/10 - 8:38 pm

My (not very extensive) experience with Cape Verdean and Hispanic BPS high school kids is that their language skills are very limited and I wonder how much they're actually getting out of being in a class taught entirely in English.

I have a number of students who are clearly excited to be there and getting the material but I worry that some kids just get so overwhelmed by the language difficulties that they just give up. When I ask kids if they understand something they'll usually say yes, but then when I ask them to explain it they'll often say they don't know. They may spend most of class with their heads on their desks or muttering to friends and they often are unable to answer even very simple questions. This ends up slowing the class down for everyone.

I know that this isn't exclusively a language thing - I have one native English speaker who has the same habit.

I understand that this is a very difficult choice, but if I were a parent I'd rather have my kid in an environment where he was being "ghettoized' but feeling somewhat confident that he could be successful in school than in an environment where he was totally lost and feeling like education was just pointless. Of course there's a benefit to other students when everyone in the class is able to participate fully as well.

I'm curious if parents have the same attitudes about high school kids as you describe.

English learning will suck money away from regular schools

By EM Painter - 2/5/10 - 6:05 pm

This will be another way to take money from the regular school budget, as more teachers will have to be certified in English language learning, and those certified will require higher pay.