First in a Series on Learning in America

Let's Put Bilingual Education to Pasture

By Dick Tunison

This column was posted earlier, but has been posted again as the first in a series on education in America.

As a past president and board member of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank I was on a recruiting mission. Sitting across the table from me in the luxurious Universal Sheraton Hotel dining room was Dr. Julian Nava, former United States Ambassador to Mexico. My mission was to persuade him to serve on the Food Bank’s board of directors. He was a busy guy, and I wasn’t making a lot of headway because his plate was already full. But our conversation was breathtaking. Here, a conservative Republican and a liberal Democrat were agreeing on a major public issue - bilingual education.

Dr Nava was born in Los Angeles in 1927 to a Mexican immigrant family of eight children. Since both of us were residents of the San Fernando Valley, I had watched him move up the political ladder over a period of years from his professorship at California State University, Northridge, to the Los Angeles Board of Education and eventually his Ambassadorship. He had been appointed by Jimmy Carter, but remained for a period of time under the Reagan Administration before leaving the political arena.

He was a bright man and even though we had some obvious political differences, I found that we were simpatico in a number of areas of mutual interest. The most astounding similarity in viewpoints was on the matter of bilingual education. As a well-rounded, highly educated Mexican-American, he was adamantly opposed to bilingual education because of what we both saw as its shortcomings. It slowed the process of assimilation among Latino children in the public schools. He explained to me that his parents wanted their kids to become full-fledged Americans, and the quickest way to that goal was through the mastery of the English language.

That was more than twenty years ago, and sadly the battle over bi-lingual education rages on. Even though California voters, by a 3 to 2 margin, passed Proposition 227, repealing bilingual education in public schools in 1998, the issue is creeping back into the foreground. A new program has been announced that will give parents the option on placing their children in classes that teach Spanish and English simultaneously. Sounds a little like bilingual education, doesn’t it?

The Oceanside School District, in southern California, was one of the first to vigorously follow the requirements of Proposition 227 after it became law. Within a year, Oceanside elementary teacher, Suni Fernandez marveled at the progress her students were showing in adapting to the English language. She noted second-graders spelling words like “people,” “friend,” and “could” - words that would likely challenge any second-grader. But the difference was that most of her students were Spanish speakers. Many earned 100s on their English tests under the new regimen.

Some parents of limited-English children argued against the total immersion classroom. They felt their children were under too much pressure to comply with the language requirement. Yet, if Oceanside Schools represent a reasonable example of how it can work, the District’s achievement scores back up the value of the program. By the second year, second-graders with limited English skills made the biggest gains. Scores were up from the 13th to the 26th percentile in reading.

Since the enactment of the California law the battle over bilingual education has continued. In 2000, Arizona followed the California lead and adopted its own new law, Proposition 203, removing the requirement that Spanish be taught in the primary grades to Spanish speaking children. Colorado voters turned down a similar proposal in November 2002, when a broad alliance of voters amassed sufficient strength to overcome the proposition. Texas utilizes both total emersion and bilingual techniques. But parents must request that their children enter the bilingual program

To be fair, there are thoughtful people on both sides of the issue. An attempt to make the matter a question of one’s conservative or liberal values, to me, seems over-simplified. I have several relatives who are former teachers, and I know they don’t all see bilingual education through the same lens. But civil rights and social issues are often raised and, thus, have politicized the issue. And that’s too bad. For the sake of kids who need to learn English, they need the fastest track we can design.

Perhaps my leaning in the matter is a tad more practical than theoretical, partly because I know statistics can be jiggered. In my early professional days I did my stint as an employment interviewer. There was never a question in my mind about a job applicant’s need to speak English well. Employees in the vast majority of American businesses cannot function at an acceptable level if they cannot converse effectively with customers, management and fellow employees.

In the United States there are upwards of a hundred foreign languages spoken by immigrants. They cannot expect to achieve the “American Dream,” unless they find the means of assimilating into the society. And the ability to speak the language is a vital key. Many immigrants depend on their children to help with English, but that is not a long term answer. Children eventually leave home, and when they do the non-English speaking parents are left without the crutch. So learning English should be important to adults as well.

I have spent time in several foreign countries and suffered because I didn’t know the local language. Try buying a ticket on the Paris subway if you can’t speak French. Try asking for directions in Zorita, Spain if you don’t speak Spanish. If I were to choose to make my home in a non-English speaking country, my first priority would be to learn the language. How else should I expect to get along? Should the locals learn my language to accommodate me?

The demands for Spanish speaking teachers to meet the needs of schools in California during the 90s could not be achieved. And that begs the broader question: If we agree to meet the needs for Spanish speakers, what about those who speak Mandarin, Vietnamese, Hindi or Polish? Where does the teaching resource come from and the obligation end? Of course, I had a screwball college mate who was an advocate of Esperanto. Maybe that’s a viable alternative!

The progenitor of my paternal line came from Holland in 1648. He married an English woman and settled in what is now Brooklyn. Considering where my tenth great-grandfather had come from, and the woman he chose for a wife, I expect he and their children learned English out of necessity – total emersion. Are things that different today?