Parents Say Students Forced To Learn Spanish

[Imran Siddiqui]

The parents are claiming that students are being forced to learn Spanish, while children of immigrants aren't being forced to learn or speak English.

Sounds like bull****. I'm sure all of their other classes are in English, so they are learning the language in order to do math, science, etc. As Rufus said, they are probably calling it something else.

Sounds to me like a bunch of racists don't like having to learn Spanish.

[Arrian]

What do you think illegal aliens from Mexico speak, Arrian?

Spanish. But why do you keep bringing up illegals? This isn't about illegals. The Spanish-speakers enrolled in this school appear, by all info available, to be legal immigrants. Please explain why you keep painting them as illegals.

Get back with me when you decide to add some value.

I guess the three on-topic links weren't of any value, huh, Sloww?

More from the last of the three links:

Ashleigh said she knew the day that she enrolled at Timberline that she didn't want to take the required Spanish classes.

"There was a lot of Spanish kids and not a lot of other kinds of kids," she said. Her mother said: "We were very much the minority. She couldn't understand anybody and really felt isolated."

The percentage of Hispanic students at Timberline has increased from 13 percent in 1996 to 54 percent of the school's 706 students last school year.

At the beginning of November, Allison e-mailed the counselor saying she was "not interested" in Ashleigh's taking Spanish. Timberline Principal Cody Spielmann replied that Spanish is required by the curriculum and that there were no other options.

"Ashleigh feels the course would be a waste of her time since she has no aspirations in the future to have a career requiring bilingual talents," Allison wrote to the principal, "nor does she feel compelled to accommodate those who live in our country who refuse to learn the primary and current native tongue of English."

Allison wanted her daughter to be allowed to study in the library or to take a different foreign language. Allison then appealed to district administrators but got the same response: Ashleigh had to go to class. Allison kept her daughter out of Spanish class for three weeks, sending her to school an hour late twice a week with a note stating that she was absent because of a "moral objection" to the class.

At the end of December, Allison filed a grievance with the Grapevine-Colleyville school board. But in a pre-hearing meeting, she and Deputy Superintendent Jim Chadwell reached a compromise to allow Ashleigh to study in the library and write a report on a country of her choice.

She learned about the government and food of France and tried to teach herself some common French phrases, but without a teacher, the language is difficult to master. "I was kind of bored because there wasn't anybody else there," she said.

I look at this and I see a xenophobe reacting to her daughter being told to learn the language of them there furriners. There are vague allegations that somehow, teaching Spanish in the school impairs the ability of the Spanish-speakers to learn English. Lots of complaining that the immigrants are "refusing to learn English." I don't see that backed up with anything of substance, though.

Perhaps you can add something of value there, Sloww?

-Arrian

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

The parents are claiming that students are being forced to learn Spanish, while children of immigrants aren't being forced to learn or speak English.

Sounds like bull****. I'm sure all of their other classes are in English, so they are learning the language in order to do math, science, etc. As Rufus said, they are probably calling it something else.

Sounds to me like a bunch of racists don't like having to learn Spanish.

Kids used to be taught in Spanish in California, but they passed a law against it. It's very hard for a kid who doesn't speak any English to learn in English though.

[Arrian]

Of course it is. There has to be some transition.

Imagine going to France and sitting in Physics class taught exclusively in French (assuming you speak no French). You'd be screwed.

-Arrian

[Kidlicious]

Slowwy,

Here's the thing. Parents today have to take personal responsibility for their kids education because they can't depend on the school to do it alone. So if you don't think that your child is learning enough English or whatever just teach them more at home.

But a lot of people don't think this is about education, but about society as a whole. People don't want society using the Spanish language.

[Barnabas]

In Argentina, at least 180 minutes of english per week, from age 6 to age 17/18 (when teens finish high school) are obligatory.

Some private schools have more hours of english, it isnt rare in those private schools for kids to have all the subjects in spanish during the morning, and all the subjects in english during the afternoon.

My girlfriend (whose english is much better than mine) even had History of England as a subject in primary school, and had to study about Canute the Great, etc, all in English.

I think kids should be forced to study English in non english speaking countries, because not knowing English, is a serious handicap.

Forcing a kid to study a language is not something bad in my eyes.

[-Jrabbit]

"There was a lot of Spanish kids and not a lot of other kinds of kids," she said. Her mother said: "We were very much the minority. She couldn't understand anybody and really felt isolated."

If all students are required to take the class, "she couldn't understand anybody" is an outright lie.

"Ashleigh feels the course would be a waste of her time since she has no aspirations in the future to have a career requiring bilingual talents," Allison wrote to the principal, "nor does she feel compelled to accommodate those who live in our country who refuse to learn the primary and current native tongue of English."

Again, I call bull****. Clearly, all other classes are taught in English -- math, science, etc. Of course the Spanish speakers have to learn English!

My conclusion is that poor little Ashleigh is a crybaby, and her mom, Allison, is a racist b1tch, using her daughter to advance her own agenda.

Gee, I wonder who alerted the media?

[Arrian]

Mommy, of course, or the group in Virginia that is worried about the "dangers of bilingualism" or somesuch.

-Arrian

[Kidlicious]

Well I hope I never have to be the person who doesn't speak the primary language of this land, but if that day ever comes I imagine I will truly understand what it is like, walking a mile in someone elses shoes.

[Perfection]

Monolingualism

Bilingualism

Analingus

Linguistics

Steven Pinker

Sour Cream
...with Brown sugar and berries

[DinoDoc]

Does anyone know if the hispanic kids are being taught English? I don't get any real information one way or the other from the article(s). If they are, I don't see the problem with the other students being taught Spanish or any other foreign language at that age. If not the school is doing a grave disservice to the population it claims to serve. I wish my school had done that to me then as I'd have an easier time filling my foreign language requirement in college rather than just barely scraping through it and resigning myself to never being fluent in it.

"Ashleigh feels the course would be a waste of her time since she has no aspirations in the future to have a career requiring bilingual talents,"

Does the parent plan on sending her kid to college? If so, she should know that all colleges I've heard of have a foreign language requirement for most if not all degrees. She should be glad for the college prep. Being billingual will also allow her daughter to command higher wages in most jobs she applies for IIUC.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Does anyone know if the hispanic kids are being taught English?

Of course they are.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Does the parent plan on sending her kid to college? If so, she should know that all colleges I've heard of have a foreign language requirement for most if not all degrees. She should be glad for the college prep. Being billingual will also allow her daughter to command higher wages in most jobs she applies for IIUC.

I also was stunned as to how much this mother thought that being billingual wouldn't help her daughter. Does she realize how much more business she may be able to do if she can speak Spanish... in TEXAS? Or maybe the kid is being bred to be a housewife? Who knows... but even then, who's going to speak to the landscapers?

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Kidicious
Of course they are.

One would think that would be in the article.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
One would think that would be in the article.

If kids were not being taught English in school that would certainly be news, and be in the article yes. So, it's not in the article it's obvious that no kids are not being taught English. Trust me, if any kids were not being taught English you would here about it.