While Obama and McCain slug it out on the national stage, voters in individual states are considering legislation that could have widespread repercussions. In the first of a special election series, Opposing Views examines Oregon’s Measure 58, a proposal that would require “English immersion” in Oregon public schools while limiting foreign language instruction. Do English immersion laws help or harm students? Figure out where you stand now; your state may be next. (Editor's Note: On November 4th, Oregon voters rejected Measure 58)
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Measure 58 is unnecessary and harmful
LinearMom Misses the point
Allowing non-English children to lag behind for years without gaining efficiency in English HURTS them. The bottom line is that if a person cannot speak English fluently as an adult in America they will not attain higher paying jobs.
I have close family friends who arrived in this country as pre-teens from Argentina not being able to speak any English. They said school was difficult at first, but back then they did not have ESL classes. You either learned English or you failed in school. All the children in the family learned English within their first year here. They are each successful adults in American society now; one is self employed, one is an attorney and another works in digital animation for Disney.
I married a man from India and have many Indian friends with children in the American school system. They do not expect American schools to teach their children in their native languages, so why do Spanish speaking people expect this? Indians prefer their children to learn in the English language bacause they know the opportunities it opens up to them. Even in India middle class families pay significant sums of money to send their children to English immersion schools because it gives them an advantage in the world economy.
Maybe you prefer to see Mexican children grow up to become migrant farm workers, or to wash your cars or serve your food? If they do not become proficient in English that is about all they can do.
- think4yourself
October 12, 2008 5:49PM
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Measure 58 will not help English language learners learn English
Yes, not learning English hurts children. If you ask immigrant parents what is most important for their children, they'll say "learning English".
BUT measure 58 won't help children learn English. It will
1. Place them in "English immersion" (which even Sizemore says he doesn't know what that means) for ONE year. Probably this means pulling them OUT of the mainstream English classes where they already are and forcing them into segregated classes.
2. It will remove ALL supports from them after one year (in elementary) or two years in high school. No support classes, no extra help if they don't understand. If you missed learning long-division because you didn't have the English vocabulary when it was introduced, too bad.
3. It will reduce the amount of money schools get to help English language learners drastically. That's probably Sizemore's real agenda.
As for kids who are able to learn English and do well in school without extra help: How much schooling did your Argentinian friends have before they started school in English? There's a big difference between kids who either have school before the start English or kids who come from homes where parents are able to help them learn. If your Argentinian friends could read in Spanish, it's not so hard to learn to read in English.
Much of the Indian middle class is bilingual. Thus, those parents are able to help their children with school work. They know the academic vocabulary. They have the academic concepts.
Who's going to help a child understand if the parents are already migrant farm workers?
Measure 58 will hurt Mexican immigrant children and Somali immigrants and any other immigrant because children who might need help won't be able to get it.. Unless they get help, either in their first language or in English, to understand the CONTENT of the classroom, they will be doomed to lives as low wage, low skilled workers. Right now they don't get enough help. Measure 58 will "fix" that by REDUCING the amount of help they get. That makes no sense.
- LinearMom
October 12, 2008 6:45PM
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English Immersion is the BEST policy for teaching English
The mother in the Argentinian family I mentioned in my earlier post could NOT speak English when I first met the family. Yet her children all learned it in school.
I was friends with her elder son who was in the military and stationed near where I lived in upstate NY. Her husband was abusive. They lived in California where she never had to learn English which prevented her from getting help or a job. Her son had been trying to convince her to leave his father. After an attack where her husband broke her nose she took her youngest son and came to NY on a bus. Her elder son was sharing a tiny apartment and asked if they could stay with me. While she was living with me she learned English. It turned her life around.
I've lived overseas. I have helped immigrants from Thailand and China learn English as a second language. Immersion in any language helps people learn that language better whether they are children or adults.
I'd like you to show me a quote where Bill Sizemore says he doesn't know what English immersion means. I do not believe it. I am sick of all the deceptive advertising focusing on Bill Sizemore's character. I've met him and he is a decent caring father and human being.
I am a democrat, so I don't agree with all is views, but I am intelligent and I can think for myself. I don't let deceptive advertising on either side of the political fence sway me. Most of the measures Bill Sizemore puts on the Oregon ballot benefit hard working middle class Oregonians. I have voted for most of his measures.
I do not understand why the teachers unions and the media in Oregon love to trash Bill Sizemore. Their public hatred of him is irrational. I've never seen a public figure attacked like it this anywhere else I have ever lived.
Maybe you should read about the success with English immersion in California and Arizona, where voters approved similar measures for English immersion:
http://www.onenation.org/0008/pr081400.html
http://www.heartland.org/publications/school %20reform/article.html?articleid=10241
Interestingly enough, the Association of School Administrators opposed these measures when they where on the ballot too. Makes you wonder if they really care about the children or about finding ways to ask taxpayers for more money by dragging out a self-induced need for costly special education.
- think4yourself
October 13, 2008 7:18AM
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Educate yourself about English Immersion
Oh I forgot, most of what you state about what English immersion means is incorrect. The link below is for an English immersion model developed by Arizona.
http://www.ade.az.gov/ELLTaskForce/2008/SEIModels05-14-08.pdf
AND the information about the financial impact of Oregon's Measure 58 provided in the voters pamphet is also incorrect. It refers to an ESTIMATE given by the Arizona School Administrators Association BEFORE the Arizona English immersion measure passed. That organization opposed the measure in their state. Of course they would make high cost estimates to try to disuade voters.
- think4yourself
October 13, 2008 7:26AM
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