[CIMC-work] Re: not crawford's piece

Wed Aug 20 12:55:32 PDT 2003

Oops.  Sorry about that...

I'm going out of town.  See you next week.
----------
_ Z  Mitchell Szczepanczyk
  /  http://home.uchicago.edu/~msszczep http://www.chicagomediaaction.org
     http://www.geocities.com/szczepanczyk http://chicago.indymedia.org

On Wed, 20 Aug 2003 JWhitfi894 at aol.com wrote:

> If you're referring to What the Public Should Know
> 
> that is by me, John Stewart Whitfield (pen name, Jack Stewart)(poet, teacher, 
> BL / BC Ed.  anti-war activist)
> 
> Let's get the facts straight here.
> 
> THE ONLY ARTICLE I POSTED BY CRAWFORD WAS WITH HIS AUTHORIZATION (Hard Sell:  
> Why BL / BC Ed. is so unpopular)
> 
> I HAD NO IDEA HE DID NOT WANT, HIS ADDRESS POSTED,
> 
> I DON'T MIND IF MY ADDRESS AND PHONE IS POSTED
> 
> I FINALLY GOT THROUGH TO CHRIS GEOVANNIS ON CRAWFORD'S PIECE WHO REMOVED HIS 
> DAMN ADDRESS
> 
> THE FOLLOWING IS MY PIECE IPOSTED THIS MORNING, AFTER GETTING AN EMAIL FROM 
> ONE OF YOU SAYING YOU'RE GOING INTO EDUCATION AND ENJOYED MY COMMENT TO 
> CRAWFORD'S ARTICLE (XENOPHOBIA / NATIVISM)
> 
> john whitfield   
> 
> What the Public should Know About Bilingual Bicultural Education
> 
> In the first place, the ESL component (English as a second language) has 
> always been one of the main components of a Bilingual program, and the main 
> purpose of Bilingual Education has always been to help the PEP (Potentially English 
> Proficient) child facilitate the acquisition of the language to be able to 
> function at a level of his monolingual English speaking counterparts once 
> transitioned out of the Bilingual program into the English only classroom.
> Though there are, needless to say, ESL programs that only teach students 
> English, and even sometimes use methods to teach ESL through the content
> area, a Bilingual Bicultural Education program, and there are many different 
> models that a school can follow, will take advantage of teaching 
> reading, writing, and grammar in the native language also (first language)
> There is much research that shows that many of these concepts learned in the 
> first language, transfer to the second language.
> Those who offer the criticism: "They need to get out of the Bilingual 
> Program, so that they can learn English" are simply misinforming others.
> Worse yet, to say that "they have been in the Bilingual program long enough, 
> and ought to be in the general program" offers the same negative insinuation
> about, just what is, Bilingual Education.
> Contrary to popular belief, students that are in well run bilingual programs, 
> do better the longer that they are in the program, after they are 
> transitioned out, and into the monolingual English program. Programs however need to be 
> well monitored, and like any school program, have the necessary books and 
> materials needed to succeed. Students have to receive the right amount of minutes 
> in each language, m and stick to the formula, depending on which program model 
> has been chosen.
> If given instruction in the native language in the content areas while 
> receiving the appropriate amount of ESL minutes / instruction, students in the 
> program 5 to 7 years will actually outperform their monolingual counterparts, or at 
> least do as well as the best of the English only speaking students.
> Depending on the type of model chosen, the decision to have more instruction 
> in the content areas in English, or even in both on alternate days, are just a 
> few 
> options that have worked in some districts. Many different models have been 
> successful, so there is no one way of having a successful bilingual program.
> Parents are becoming aware of the cognitive advantage by having their 
> children grow in two languages, and many parents monolingual English speaking 
> students are wanting to get their children in on this, seeking to get their children 
> into dual language programs.
> Dual Language programs are another form of Bilingual Education in which 
> students are immersed into both languages from the onset of school.
> Dual languages instructors are well versed on how children learn language at 
> different cognitive stages.
> Given an opportunity to learn two languages simultaneously, students are able 
> to enter High School as balanced bilinguals, and even take on a third 
> language, which needless to say, is a different kind of a program than for younger 
> children, and not part of a Bilingual program. It would be the onset of 
> acquiring a third language.
> Transitional Bilingual Education on the other hand, concentrates on moving 
> the child out of the Bilingual program, and into the English only class as soon 
> as possible, and more often than not, leads to subtractive bilingualism, that 
> is,
> when one language is learned at the expense of the other. This becomes more 
> injurious to the older student, with the understanding that different age 
> groups
> are different. That is, the younger the child is, when one begins acquiring 
> the second language, the more practical it is to facilitate this. A child for 
> example, that comes from Mexico to the US in the 6th grade, speaking only 
> Spanish, and is placed into a transitional Bilingual program in Elementary School 
> may not be literate enough yet in English after 8th grade to compete 
> successfully in High School, especially if the High School offers no ESL (English as a 
> second language) program.
> Putting a limit on the number of years a child is to be programmed for a
> Bilingual program, is a mistaken notion, for it can lead to the same 
> subtractive bilingualism dilemma, and is in violation of the most recent Bilingual 
> Federal mandate, that states in fact, that one language should not be learned at 
> the expense of the other.
> In subtractive Bilingualism, the dominant English speaking culture, for 
> example, takes over in the child's life, and the home language eventually ceases to 
> grow, setting the child up, for falling off that once secure base, that 
> becomes weakened.
> Recent skepticism in 1998, and before, attacking the virtues of Bilingual 
> Education, came in the midst of anti-immigrant hysteria, and a resurgence of 
> nativism, the ethnocentric stereotypical nonsense, "that this land is my land, 
> more than it is yours." Proposition 187, needless to say, grew out of this
> resurgence of nativism, but has ended up in the courts. 
> The attempts to discredit Bilingual Education also began in California, but 
> have also ended up in court.
> In the Lau vs. Nichols case, the Chinese student Lau sued Superintendent 
> Nichols because he graduated from High School not knowing how to read English. 
> This did not happen because Lau received too much instruction in Chinese, but 
> because he received instruction only in English (not ESL) passed on all the way 
> through High School, never understanding English, while receiving no 
> instruction in Chinese.
> Since Lau won the case, it set a precedent for developing Bilingual Education 
> programs, which the Bilingual Education act grew out of.
> The public receives much disinformation, and many parents of PEP students are 
> misinformed too, about just what is Bilingual Education, often falling for 
> the line, "if you want your child to learn English, get him out of the bilingual 
> program" etc.
> Cuban Americans have done much for the advocacy of Bilingual Education, and 
> have for the most part moved into the American middle class. Puerto Ricans,
> whether Puerto Rico keeps its current status, or becomes free, here or there, 
> having seen how Cubans have benefited from Bilingual Education, while their 
> people wallow in poverty, are not about to give up the struggle, and let their 
> children become stripped of Spanish, the most integral part of their culture.
> Mexicans are also a distinct group of people, and could rightfully declare to 
> the nativists, that they were here first, and it is true that the border 
> crossed them.
> 150 years ago the Mexican American War culminated with the US Calvary 
> marching into the Mexican capital, and not leaving until Mexico coughed up half of 
> her land to the US, Mexico shrinking in size, while the Americans rounded off 
> the map, having already gotten Texas from Mexico a dozen years earlier.
> These are historical facts, and even Henry David Thoreau quoted Abraham Lincol
> n in civil disobedience, denouncing President Polk, and the war against 
> Mexico as being a senseless conflict.
> Needless to say, there was no Gulf of Mexico coalition to chase the Americans 
> out of Mexico, so it was one of the biggest land grabs in the history of the 
> world.
> The point is, we should be celebrating Bilingual Education as a vehicle of 
> communication across cultures, in our ever more interdependent world, instead of 
> letting the nativists getting away with bashing it.
> 
> john whitfield
> 3641 s. wolcott ave.
> chicago,IL. 60609
> 773-890-4805 (same fax #)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 