[CIMC-work] not crawford's piece

[JWhitfi894 at aol.com]

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 #)




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