Dream of a Common Language. Sueño de un Idioma Común
The graduates of a radical bilingual education program at Alicia R. Chacón International, in El Paso, would have no trouble reading either of these headlines. What can they teach the rest of us about the future of Texas?
... the dual language experiment has been a success by any measure. By the sixth grade, kids in the program—regardless of which language they spoke when they first enrolled—are outscoring native English speakers on the TAKS tests. They can also read, write, and speak Spanish at a sophisticated level. Full Story »
Posted by Kaizar Campwala
Ysleta's model for bi-lingual education seems quite natural to me. America is a very ethno-centric country despite its incredible ethnic diversity. Bi-lingual education should be the accepted norm throughout the country. With so many Spanish speakers in the country it seems logical to make Spanish the country's second language, the two languages to be used side by side throughout the primary and secondary school system. And a third language option would provide students with and opportunity for much further understanding of the world at large.