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A Letter to Our Children on Bilingual Education
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11515 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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10 / 1986 |
1,471 Words |
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Ramon L. Santiago and Ramonita Adorno De Santiago
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Dear Monchito and Paloma:
We have been asked to give our views on bilingual education. You know that in the past we have received and honored similar requests, but lately we have been less eager to accept such challenges because of increasing acrimony. This time, though, we said yes because we wanted to try a new approach: to respond to this request from the unique perspective of parents of bilingual children (you) whose primary concern is the present and future educational welfare of their children.
This letter is to explain why we feel that it is less frustrating and more productive to discuss bilingual education in its most non-controversial context: the education of our children. True, we could have talked about budgets, legislation, methodology, or politics - which in themselves are important dimensions of bilingual education. As we have repeatedly told you, however, bilingual education is first of all education. It is language education (English and the student's native language) as well as subject matter education (math, science, history). Societies that use the concept properly seek only to employ an additional educational approach that promises clear and positive outcomes: bilingualism (fluency in two languages) plus academic advancement.
'The cat's fifth leg'
Too often people lose sight of this very obvious reality and end up buscandole cinco patas al gato ("looking for the cat's fifth leg"). That is why we called one of our most recent speeches "Putting Education Back into Bilingual Education." Since we are going to examine bilingual education from the educational standpoint, it seemed only natural to direct our remarks to the family - parents and children - in an attempt to explain what bilingual education means in the United States when you reduce the concept to its educational essence.
A number of people out there, you might point out, would call us naïve for pursuing the impossible dream. In their opinion, bilingual education is fraught with such controversy that it would be impossible to discuss it rationally. Maybe we are being naïve, but we have always felt that bilingual education has two important (and presumably non-controversial) outcomes: bilingualism and educational (academic) progress. In our minds, bilingualism - or the ability to function in two languages - is so obviously an asset that it won't take much persuasion to convince parents and children that bilingual education in its educational context can't be deleterious either to individuals or to society. As parents of bilingual children, we find it extremely easy to offer testimony of the personal, academic, and career benefits of bilingual education.
People might claim that we are not being objective, or that you two are not typical cases, or that the story of two children doesn't prove anything. Still, we know your situation best and we feel very strongly that there are many other Monchitos and Palomas out there for whom the educational context of bilingual education has meant nothing but good.
We can almost hear you asking, with childlike simplicity, "Why should it be so difficult to argue convincingly before parents and children that bilingual education is so beneficial?" Well, the two of you, being fluent bilinguals, will not be difficult
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