Submitted by Carolyn Quinn (not verified) on April 14, 2008 - 16:12.
When will foreign language education for all students be stressed. I see an evil here in the State of California that is totally inexcusable. The schools are paying out big money to make sure that Hispanic and Latino students learn English, yet they are making no effort to make sure that African American students learn other languages, especially Spanish. That gives foreigners advantages and continue the cycle of discrimination in hiring practices for jobs when they are adult. This is a very competitive world and how can they compete. If we have not noticed, America is not just black and white anymore. Literally. Because most Black students do not speak any other language unless they are from another nation.
When I inquired about this situation to the assistant superintendent over the school district about this very messy situation, I was told that "they" (meaning African American students) can pick it up (foreign language) as an elective when they enter high school. That is much too late. They need to be able to learn other languages while they are very young in the public school system with some of the taxes we are using to teach others which may or may not be legal citizens. I don't mean to sound harsh, bitter or mean, but I just do not have any other words in my vocabulary and this expresses my sentiments. I wanted to get to the point and it was what I needed to say.
In addition to all of this, society has become such a multi-cultural melting pot that I think if we could help all of our children with something as simple as language skills, we would have accomplished something very great. Even the people I have talked with the capacity to do something about this, I believe wants to be "politically correct while a portion of our children are falling through the cracks because they have no one who will speak up for them. Even many black parents remain asleep, don't care, or do not see the wrong, or simply don't understand or speak up.
Foreign language education
Submitted by Carolyn Quinn (not verified) on April 14, 2008 - 16:12.
When will foreign language education for all students be stressed. I see an evil here in the State of California that is totally inexcusable. The schools are paying out big money to make sure that Hispanic and Latino students learn English, yet they are making no effort to make sure that African American students learn other languages, especially Spanish. That gives foreigners advantages and continue the cycle of discrimination in hiring practices for jobs when they are adult. This is a very competitive world and how can they compete. If we have not noticed, America is not just black and white anymore. Literally. Because most Black students do not speak any other language unless they are from another nation.
When I inquired about this situation to the assistant superintendent over the school district about this very messy situation, I was told that "they" (meaning African American students) can pick it up (foreign language) as an elective when they enter high school. That is much too late. They need to be able to learn other languages while they are very young in the public school system with some of the taxes we are using to teach others which may or may not be legal citizens. I don't mean to sound harsh, bitter or mean, but I just do not have any other words in my vocabulary and this expresses my sentiments. I wanted to get to the point and it was what I needed to say.
In addition to all of this, society has become such a multi-cultural melting pot that I think if we could help all of our children with something as simple as language skills, we would have accomplished something very great. Even the people I have talked with the capacity to do something about this, I believe wants to be "politically correct while a portion of our children are falling through the cracks because they have no one who will speak up for them. Even many black parents remain asleep, don't care, or do not see the wrong, or simply don't understand or speak up.