Okay, this doesn't really have much to do with the reading, but I just thought I'd share a quote I heard in the lunchroom.
The teacher was talking about this one girl in class (an EO) who feels insecure about being in her group because some of the other girls talk spanish and (allegedly) start laughing. The teacher pretty much told them they can't speak spanish in the classroom, that it's not polite. Thank goodness she didn't say next what others have said - "This is America."
Uhm, how about either A) asking the girls what they were talking about, B) learn a bit of spanish too so you don't feel insecure, or C) all of the above! But to tell them that's it not polite if she doesn't know what they are saying? Now, I know how middle schoolers are, and they may very well have been talking "stuff" about the other girl, but if the teacher had suggested instead that it's not very polite to be talking rudely about other students, I'm sure they would have stopped . . . okay, well for five minutes or so . . .
I just wish I had the guts to have pointed out how rude such a comment sounds. Then again, I was the only one there who speaks an ounce of Spanish.
That was a rude way to approach the kids but that is a hard situation. My son did his first year of Kindergarten (he repeated k) at a school that most of the students were English learners and spoke spanish. When he came home the first day from school he told me he needed to learn "Spanish". That nobody talked to him in English. Now, as a mom that broke my heart for my son. It made me mad that my son is going to a school where English is the primary language and he is told he needs learn spanish. I disagree with the idea that he should learn spanish at five years old. It's not that this is America and that English is the only language we should speak but it is the primary language. I think it is hard situation that the teacher was facing. The teacher could of approach the situation a little better. Maybe by explaining that the student felt bad because she didn't understand what they were saying. The teacher should of approach the situation better.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the situation became better for you and your son, and the discussion surely could have gone better if explained. I didn't realize that the language war went both ways - "Speak English, this is America" vs. "Speak Spanish, because that is what a majority of our population is." . . . As long as we have two dominant language groups, I don't see hope of resolution. I feel bad for students in other states - mostly East Coast - where there are sometimes three to four different dialects going on in one class! Then what is the answer? Maybe English only instruction at that point? . . .
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