Bilingual Education
Bilingual education has existed in various forms throughout the history of the U.S. as the nation has sought to educate non-English children. Recognizing the linguistic diversity in schools, Congress passed the Bilingual Education Act of 1968, which funded language programs for non-English speaking students. With a heightened awareness of diversity and America's expanding immigrant population, bilingual education became increasingly concerned with maintaining cultural identity and teaching in the students' native language (Richman). Richard Rodriguez's, memoir on bilingual education, "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood" argues against bilingual education stating that, "It is not possible for a child, any child, ever to use his family's language in school. Not to understand this is to misunderstand the public uses of schooling to trivialize that nature of intimate life." I believe that students have the right to use their native language as the language of school.
When non-English speaking children are placed in a solely English speaking school environment, they almost will surely fail in not only learning English, but also in getting an education. English speaking classes are made for children brought up in an English speaking home. Children not brought up in an English speaking home are far behind those that were. Rodriguez says that he felt like a "socially disadvantage child" because he regarded Spanish as his private language (Rodriguez). Bilingual education will help students to assimilate easily in to the American society by supporting their bicultural background and making them feel like an individual. Bilingual educators say that children loose a degree of individuality by becoming assimilate into public society (Rodriguez). Children do not loose anything by learning how to speak English. They gain much more than the language. They gain cultural and public acceptance. Those who oppose bilingual education, especially in state-fund
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Approximate Word count = 669
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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