Bilingual Education has been a much-debated topic for the past few years. Some believe that bilingual education is used as a helpful tactic to learn how to grasp the English language faster. Others believe that bilingual education does not help people learn English faster, but prohibits them from moving forward by keeping them at a "lower level" when it comes to education. Advocates for bilingual education argue that not only does bilingual education help introduce English to students, but at the same time it should be a tool used in order to preserve culture and promote assimilation to the country. I do not believe that bilingual education is the most effective way to achieve the goals of assimilation and success in America. I believe that it is important to know a variety of languages for people's own personal cultural preservation. Among other things, being bilingual can be beneficial for the future, since people would be able to communicate with a variety of cultures. I merely do not believe that bilingual education is the right way to strive for these objectives. Bilingual Education costs too much money and time. There is no possible way to reach out to every single culture

This brings up an issue of segregation. Over the past century, America has struggled to eliminate the need for segregated schools. The only way to accommodate the many cultures that exist in American schools would be to separate them, or categorize them. This presents more problems than solutions. For many years, children were forced to attend schools according to their race. Because of this, the treatment and the accommodations of the schools have been biased. One school of a particular race would receive better school supplies and facilities while others may receive little to nothing. It would be almost impossible to equally educate the different cultures if they became, in some form, segregated. Not only would these cultures become isolated, they will also be reduced to numbers and dehumanized. The last thing we want for our children is to have them go to a segregated school because of their culture and the language they were brought up to speak. School is not only a place for education, but it is also a melting pot of many cultures and histories. Isolation breeds ignorance.

Another problem that persists is the difficulty of finding appropriate and competent teachers to teach in bilingual education. Large numbers of children each year are forced into bilingual classes even if their parents don't want it. Bilingual teachers are in short supply. Therefore some teachers are hired who have no teacher training but speak Spanish or some language other than English. This results in poor teaching and little or no English-language teaching. Many feel that America is trying too hard to reach out to each and every culture. Though commendable, America is also producing more problems in the process. Yes, there exists many cultures, but we cannot accommodate every single culture. In many cases, nothing comes free without struggle.

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Approximate Word count = 1849
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)