Reply #63: Great article, I could have told them this years ago.

[Bouncy Ball]

I used to live in Georgia, about 10 years ago. There really wasn't as much of a Hispanic population then, but I could see they would be totally unprepared.

Even here, in Texas, we still don't handle bilingual and ESL populations very well. Teachers, when among other teachers, voice racist opinions and bitch and moan that they "just need to learn English."

I always tell them to move to France and be completely up to speed on reading and writing French in three months or less. While your teachers don't help you much.

In some schools, there are ESL classes, in others there aren't. In some there are immersion classrooms, in others there aren't. It's very inconsistent.

On the plus side, there have been many ESL success stories. Kids who were just determined not just to be proficient in English, but really good at it. At one middle school in my district last year, the top three spellers were all Spanish speaking only until they were in elementary school. One of them went on to win region and he didn't speak English until he was NINE.

Another attitude I hate is the one that says that immigrants "refuse" to speak English. I have yet to meet these people. Every immigrant I have ever known has worked hard to speak English, to assimilate. Heck, the middle school kids I worked with in the ESL program would DENY, with a very thick Spanish accent, when speaking to other kids, that they could speak Spanish.

"I don e-speak no e-spanish."

It was sad. I always encouraged them to keep their Spanish skills, as bilingualism comes in handy in the working world and in many jobs, you get hiring preference and paid more for it. But they WANTED to lose their Spanish. They wanted to fit in so badly. They'd even make fun of other kids who were newer to America, calling them "mojos."

The point about parents is DEAD on. Parents who are limited in English feel VERY intimidated by their kids' schools and tend to NOT want to come to school under any circumstances. I've had them apologize to me for their lack of English skills, and once a mom apologized, in Spanish, for her rough hands (her job dishwashing at a restaurant).