Sindi Wasserman speaks out

[Peter Farruggio <pfarr@cal.berkeley.edu>]

> Sindi D. Wasserman, Guest Columnist
> Bilingual debate is back because students benefit
>
> Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
>
> The Daily Bulletin recently published a column by
> Peter Schrag, a columnist for the Sacramento Bee. I am
> not sure how many people were able to digest it, as
> Mr. Schrag deliberately wrote it in very sophisticated
> language. However, it was full of misrepresentations
> of the truth, and at best it was extremely misleading.
> He presented an extremely negative view of the merits
> of bilingual education and implied that if the State
> Department of Education is to authorize additional
> (extremely needed) funding for our state?s EL (English
> Learner) students, then we would be, in effect,
> segregating these students and be going back to a time
> when these students were educationally penalized by a
> system of bilingual education.
>
> Scores of research articles have been written and
> published that confirm the merits of bilingual
> education; meanwhile, since the passage of Proposition
> 227, a previously bilingual/literate student
> population has pitifully become barely monolingual.
>
> Employers advertise more than ever before for
> ??bilingual preferred? potential employees ­ yet we
> are lucky if we can produce high school graduates who
> have been able to master even the beginnings of a
> second language (thanks to the shortsighted thinking
> of our legislators and the public at large.) Of
> course, when being bilingual is associated with being
> un-American ... what can we expect?
>
> Thankfully, at least one California legislator, Ms.
> Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, is willing to step up
> to the plate and fight for California?s immigrant
> student population and their parents. If anyone out
> there in the reading public would like a more accurate
> view of what is happening not only in California, but
> in the rest of the country as well, with regard to EL
> students, please look up the January publication of
> ??NEA Today? at www.nea.org. There is an excellent
> article about the 425 first languages that the five
> million students enrolled in our country's schools
> bring to our U.S. classrooms.
>
> We can argue until doomsday whether or not ??these
> children should be here.? But the fact is: they are.
> It is time for California, at least, to wake up and
> smell the roses. These children are here to stay and
> are a part of our mainstream society ­ educational and
> otherwise.
>
> We must do all we can to educate them properly. This
> requires major funding and serious dedication to
> obliterating the educational gap that exists between
> our students who do not struggle with language
> deficits and those who do.
>
> Mr. Schrag seems to know all of the acronyms to throw
> around in his column. But I bet he hasn?t visited a
> flowering ELD class lately. He might be hard pressed
> to find a true bilingual classroom left in California,
> thanks to Proposition 227, but the teachers are still
> around ­ and we haven?t given up. In the near future,
> many educators will travel to Sacramento to let the
> State Board of Education know that we demand increased
> funding for our EL students.
>
> You are wrong, Mr. Schrag, when you say that ??for
> most EL students a generation ago, bilingual education
> in California was a dead end that sucked in thousands
> of students and kept them there even when they knew
> English better than their native language.?
>
> The bilingual programs that were properly funded,
> adequately staffed and properly monitored were greatly
> successful and have produced some wonderful, fantastic
> bilingual and biliterate high school and college
> graduates. I know; my students are among them.
>
> Please, public, call to task those who criticize that
> which they know little to nothing about. Ask students
> who are now able to ??write their ticket? in the job
> market because they do speak two languages and have
> learned how to navigate in life through two cultures.
> They might not be writing editorials to try to sway
> your opinions, but they are working in our country?s
> hospitals, emergency rooms, law firms, schools, fire
> departments, police stations, and are flying our
> commercial planes. Look around you. They are
> everywhere: These bilinguals, these biliterates, these
> ??failures.? You bet the debate is back again! And
> there are more letters to follow.
>
> - Sindi D. Wasserman is founder and president of Chino
> Valley Chapter CABE-California Association for
> Bilingual Education.