Bilingual Classes for Everyone
Re “Orange District OKs Bilingual Education End,” April 18:
Orange Unified School District is applying for an exemption to a California state requirement to teach limited English proficiency students in their native language.
Some think that scrapping bilingual education is racist: “They are taking our language away from us,” says one Latino. Others, including a Latino school board member, believe that bilingual activists are inadvertently holding their children back.
Why don’t we allay both these fears by teaching all school children to speak another language? Why don’t Spanish speakers learn English and English speakers learn Spanish? In today’s global society, it makes sense that we are all multilingual.
Why don’t we make the influx of Spanish speakers in our schools an advantage by offering classes in Spanish starting in elementary school? We would help preserve the Spanish speakers’ pride in their cultural and linguistic heritage, while giving native English speakers a chance to learn another language at a time in their development when it is relatively easy to learn a new language. And there would be no shortage of people with whom to practice.
RAJIA KHALIL BLANK
Costa Mesa
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