In the Standard-Times “Our View” dated July 29, 2012, the editorial staff has again thrown their weight behind the all-too-familiar topic of Innovation Schools inhabiting the buildings of our NBPS system. This time the direct object is the proposed Esperanza School of Language and Culture touted by three individuals. Personally, I happen to be a big fan of culture. My own background is anything but that of a New England WASP. I was born in the Canadian Province of Newfoundland and immigrated to America with my mother and father at a young age. While it’s absolutely true that my native tongue and that of my adopting country were the same, the reality is that the culture my parents grew up in was not always in synch with our new neighbors. Had my parents chosen for me to be poorly educated and devoid of good medical care and housing, they could have remained on that Rock. My parents, though, had a deep belief that America’s promise held a grander outcome for me and so we quickly assimilated into the little town of Middlebury, Vt., where curling was something girls did to their hair, and biscuits were slathered with gravy, not dipped in tea. Assimilation did not hold the death of my culture in its grip, though. My parents taught me those traditions in the safety and comfort of our home. The instruction of personal culture belongs where it lives, offered by those who are dear to us and directly connected to its significance in our life. Culture is defined as: “the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group.” Accommodating a culture has no place in a school system beyond those required cultural demands that are necessitated by that culture. For example, the allowance of a Hebrew boy to wear a yamaka during the high holy days, despite there being a ban on headwear worn in a school or the accommodations made for Muslim children to honor their religious routine by creating a prayer space, separate from the general population. These accommodations do not immediately interfere with the important business of a school and they further show the world that America rejoices in its ability to provide acceptances for those customs required by a group of people who have come to our land seeking those basic tenets: Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The Esperanza School’s request to inhabit Roosevelt Middle School is a confusion to me. First, it requires us to accept that the culture it intends to illuminate is one that is not immediately available to the students it desires to serve. The fact is, the culture is an American culture. Overwhelmingly, the population of students that this school would serve are more American than I am. Hispanic by default, their origin is mainly comprised of a large group of nearby residents who can trace their history not to Mexico or Chile or even Spain itself. This group would be correctly identified as Puerto Rican-Americans, just as correct as we are in identifying African-Americans or Asian-Americans. It is a rich heritage that forever changed in 1917 with the Jones Act where, after the Spanish-American War, Spain relinquished sovereignty for the tidy sum of about $20M. Puerto Rico, on that day, became an American Commonwealth. There are, to be sure, distinctions between Puerto Rico and, say, Rhode Island. They have to do with governance and perceptual independence, but they are Americans. The dollar is the official currency, they serve in the United States Armed Forces and their mail is delivered with a U.S. Postal stamp.
Why then, you may ask, should I spend so very much time in outing this and with so much backstory?
Because the strength of America comes not from the accommodation of some of its people but from the assimilation of its entire people. In accommodating our citizenry over the last century we have created a sub-culture of enabled Americans who have held our resources captive due to a backlash of learning what is historically our national language. Every major culture who immigrated to our shores during America’s first exponential growth understood that the importance of their personal culture could not transcend what they needed most: to become wage earners and share fully in the American dream. For this reason alone, the forced adoption of a second, but equal, language will result in our student’s focus being directed to the accommodation of a group who willingly chose not to fully assimilate.
More frightening to me, however, is the valuable and precious time that will be spent daily in the instruction of subjects in a second language to children who speak English as a first language. Am I all wet here, or do we have need to focus on mathematics and English language arts as shown necessary by released MCAS scores in those two, all-important core subjects?
Here’s my suggestion to those individuals who wish to open the Esperanza Innovation school~
Secure private funding for your experiment and seek a location to open it in. Consider pleas to the governments and tax bases of those locales whose national language you wish to instruct your students in. Perhaps Spain could… Oh, right… Well then, maybe Mexi… Oh, yeah, never mind.. Hey! There’s always Cuba…
But I’d get a move on, things are bound to get muy caliente…
http://www.facebook.com/groups/369720229723737/
11 comments:
Isn't placing a large amount of one or two ethnic groups from across the city into one building called segregation? At least that's what it was called when I went to school in the 60's. I don't understand why the district insists on keeping middle school ELL students tucked away in one school down the south end of NB. And with the addition of this so-called Esperanza innovation school, it's just sending that message all the more.
Terrific letter hitting all the points. Remember when St. Joseph School, St. Anthony School, Immaculate Conception School, St. Anne School, and OLPH had their own schools which taught both languages during the school day. This concept proposed by the three teachers is not a new idea as it was done in the past.
Our time, effort, and resources should be put into educating our students to their full potential and preparing them for their future in the global world not just this tiny dot on the world called New Bedford, Massachusetts. We need upgraded computes, latest technology, text books, arts, etc. Programs that we had were cut it is now time to bring them back.
I was wondering if NBPS will really give the children of New Bedford programs that were cut in the past if these innovation schools did not come up. My guess is not, NBPS is stuck in their old ways of thinking, perhaps that might be the reason why chatter schools, innovation schools,etc keep coming up. Althought, I do have my children attend NBPS and will not think of putting them anywhere else, I don't critize those parents that want to try something different for their children. I Do wish that NBPS offered languages in the Middle schools like other surrunding towns. I still feel a bit confuse about how much chatter schools and other school like them really effect the NBPS. I have been reading on them but still don't understand why they are being put down. After all, they are still educating children of New Bedford. We will still have to pay for those kids to be educated if they attended our schools. Maybe you guys can explain it to me. I wish you all a great summer.
I wonder how many people know that English is not the official language of the United States of America. As an American I would love my own children to learn another language. Other countries do it. Look at China, their citizens are learning to speak English and their economy is growing. Times has changes and the American dream is not what it use to be. Our citizens need to be better educated since the era of factories are gone. We need to stop isolating ourselves from the rest of the world. I have visited other countries where students are being educated in more than a language. All we keep worrying is about teaching to a test and not allowing our students to grow in their education. Worst of all, we are running our schools like factories and along the way our kids are not learning how to think for themselves. I learned that MIT the majority of their students are from overseas. I would love to see more Americans attending and why aren't more Americans enrolled in institutes like MIT.
^"The Class of 2011 represents all but one state (North Dakota) and 58 countries, with 8 percent of students arriving as international undergraduates. Ninety-two percent of the students are U.S. citizens and permanent residents." (Where did you "learn" about MIT and the learners there?)http://tech.mit.edu/V127/N31/admissions.html
http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/class_of_2012_profile_posted
This link shows that the MIT(Class of 2012) 66% were from PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Thank you for the information about MIT. But, I too like the blogger that wrote about MIT thought that most of the students that enrolled at MIT were also form oversees. I saw a show that mentioned that. I am happy to learn that american students are attending these kinds of of colleges, and more exciting that they are educcted in public schools.
The rest of the world speeks more than one language! Why are wee so reluctant to expose our students to learning about other cultures and languages? Students who are able to communicate in more than one language are better suited to excell in our global economy and do better on standerized tests. Lets join the rest of the world and have our students learn other languages and learn about other cultures just like they learn about ours! Begin as early as possible and def. by middle School. High School age is already too late to begin.
Will the fact that bilingual programs being banned in MA prevent this dual immersion school from coming to fruition? I realize that Spanish is the dominant foreign language in NB and that would more than likely be the language chosen for this school but what about the students that speak Portuguese, Cape Verdean Creole, Chinese etc? This school also cannot address the needs of the countless numbers of students that come to this country during their middle or high school years. Those are the non-English speaking students that have the greatest achievement gaps and meet with the most failure. As an earlier poster stated, "high school is too late" for language acquisition. By your own admission, these students are destined for failure. What do we do about that? The research of these dual immersion schools only shows improvement when the students have been in the program from grades K-4. It requires 5 years of dual immersion before there is an improvement compared to students in regular immersion. Consistent attendance also plays an integral role in the student's progress and we are all well aware that this continues to remain a problem in this district. I'm sorry but before we invest a large amount of the NBPS budget into such an endeavor, I think we had better make certain that this will indeed address all non-English speaking students' needs and that it will not be at the expense of all the other students.
Why not create a k - 12 emmer soon school? Why k-8? When these kids are promoted they will move elsewhere. Wherever they go MCAS will come into play with little or no reflection on the sending school! Most students and their families in NB are not literate in their native language or English. Literacy is the issue here, not the language spoken at home.
Thank you so much Sandra for those links. I was aware already of the benefits of leaning a second language but reading the information you posted was very educational. So many people critized things that they have no clue about and don't even bother to reasearch. I am glad that you took your time to do this and educate those who are unfamiliar. I will personally put my child on a dual language program if there was any around New Bedford I would be willing to pay for one never mind if it was available in our public schools. Many of my friends are paying for private classes for their children to learn a second language.
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