Controversy in the Schools: Bilingual Education

Bilingual education is a very controversial issue facing the United States today. There are various forms and categories of bilingual education. These include: Transitional bilingual programs, Immersion bilingual programs, Two-way bilingual programs, Restoration bilingual programs, and Developmental bilingual programs. I will focus on two-way bilingual programs. This is a form of bilingual education in which students study two languages, in order to form literacy and native language ability, regardless of their original native language.

Personally, I have always wished that learning a second language had been part of my education while growing up. Being proficient in another language has been and still is a major goal in my life. If I had been given this incredible opportunity at a young age, I would most likely be completely proficient in a second language by the time I graduated from high school, if not sooner.

One article titled “Bilingual Education” by James Crawford has a section speaking against bilingual education. “Some ‘English Only’ advocates go further, arguing that even if bilingual education is effective – which they doubt – it's still a bad idea for the country because bilingualism threatens to sap our sense of national identity and divide us along ethnic lines. They fear that any government recognition of minority languages ‘sends the wrong message’ to immigrants, encouraging them to believe they can live in the U.S.A. without learning English or conforming to "American" ways.

However, two-way bilingual programs help to eliminate this conflict. Since majority and minority students are all put together, each learning the other group’s native tongue as their second language, “all students have the opportunity to be both first language models and second language learners.” This helps eliminate the feeling of a singled out, minority group in the school.

When a study was done of the Amigos program in Cambridge, MA, the students had a number of positive comments about the program and their experience in a bilingual school.

Spanish Amigos

• "feel equally competent in both languages”
• "are confident that they can understand nearly everything presented in Spanish media”
• "feel comfortable translating "most things"

English-Amigos

• "can get the main idea of Spanish media”
• "feel comfortable translating ‘some things’”
• “feel that they are not at all behind in English but likely ahead”

Both

• “reveal no ethnic or linguistic bias in their choice of close friends”
• "perceive Hispanic Americans as they would other Americans"
• "favor bilingual classes over monolingual classes"

Stephen Krashen’s article, titled “What Works? Reviewing the Latest Evidence on Bilingual Education,” stated that, “Study after study has reported that children in bilingual programs typically outperform their counterparts in all-English programs on tests of academic achievement in English. Or, at worst, they do just as well.”

In addition to performance in the classroom, two-way bilingual programs help to confront the issue of diversity at an early age. By learning another language, one comes to know and appreciate the culture associated with it. Since language and culture go hand in hand, the earlier we learn another language, the better we are at accepting diverse people in the United States and the world. “Claiborne H. Marshall stated, in “Exploring Bilingual Education,” “let us continue to promote diversity by recognizing peoples’ differences and helping them to keep their dignity and spirit alive while continuing to encourage the growth of present and future forms of language programs.” “Children of all ages need bilingual programs to be able to either maintain their own cultures, identities, heritages and languages or explore new ones in this growing global society.”

Why We Teach and Good Teaching

Why do we teach? What is the difference between school “work” and student “learning”? What makes for good teaching?

Teaching is a passion, a vocation, or a desire to give back to the world. One teaches with the hope of improving society and giving children the tools to improve the future in their community. In teaching, one has the ability to reach students in such a way that they can become better citizens, form personal values, be informed and responsible, and create relationships with others through your instruction. In the video we watched on love, a man was reflecting on the situation of concentration camps and stated, the “ultimate act of love - meant saving one life.” This is how teaching should be. It is the job of teachers to attempt to find the good in each student and help them display the gifts they possess. If I, as a teacher, am able to reach just one student, then I feel like I have accomplished something special and have brought purpose to my occupation of teaching. John Dewey stated, “I believe that every teacher should realize the dignity of his calling; that he is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of proper social order and securing the right social growth.” This statement explains the reason for teaching and the influence a teacher can have on students and on society.

There is a fine line between school “work” and student “learning”. It is important that the work students do brings about learning, experience, and gives them tools they can apply to their lives. Work that is done but doesn’t expand students’ knowledge base falls under the category of “busy work”. All activities should be planned with a specific purpose in mind for improving the individual and strengthening their skills. I believe that learning done in the classroom should be applicable to daily life. Science and math methods should be applied to understanding everyday events such as weather and why certain things act the way they do, social studies should focus on helping the student become a better citizen, and English classes should focus on improving successful communication skills in both verbal and written forms. Just as David Orr stated, education is the definition of Paideia. “The goal of education is not mastery of subject matter, but of one’s person.” Work associated with learning that improves one’s self is very important. A good teacher creates activities that strengthen skills and don’t appear to be “work” in the eyes of students. It is important to encourage learning in such a way that interest and enthusiasm is maintained, destroying the mental idea of “work” and leaving true “learning” for students to experience and enjoy.

A good teacher is one who accepts all students and has a true love for each one of them, no matter what their background, attitude, or personality is like. A good teacher will find special skills that each child possesses and work to draw each skill out of the student in a way that the student learns to appreciate and use their particular gift in a way that is beneficial to society. According to Aimee Fredette, an effective “teacher will reach all children no matter what it takes.” Good teaching doesn’t necessarily mean perfect test scores and students that can compute math problems quickly and with 100 percent accuracy. A good teacher encourages learning, helps students find meaning in their lives, enables them to form new and enlightened perspectives of the world, and just as Rousseau said, helps students “learn how to live.” A good teacher is one who listens and learns from their students as much as their students are expected to learn from them. In chapter two of the text book, one student talked about a math teacher who turned around the lives of a number of students. “He made learning his subject so much fun.” He “always had a gentile smile, pleasant image, always used objects to illustrate, made the most complicated and abstruse principle seem so straightforward and obvious, and nobody failed his subject in the public state exams.” This is the definition of a good teacher.