Teachers Support English Initiative

* Re the Gloria Matta-Tuchman and Ron Unz English for the Children initiative:

I work with children of recent immigrants, both Latino and Southeast Asian. In most of the cases with which I am familiar, the parents do not speak English. This means, of course, that schools are attempting to teach English to children who rarely speak it at home and who will certainly face difficulties in developing English proficiency.

Since Gloria Matta-Tuchman has had such a high level of success using the English immersion method with the little children she teaches in Santa Ana, surely there is something to be learned from her method. It is working.

And the evidence is overwhelming, both statistically and anecdotally, that Latinos want their children to learn English. These parents know that success in the United States begins with a command of the English language.

Command of the English language will help to prevent the problems occurring at the university level, where students who have passed all their classes at primary and secondary levels have proven themselves incapable of college-level work, primarily in the mastery of English composition.

As an aide in an upper-division writing class at a local university, I experienced firsthand the frustration that many college professors must be feeling. Should college professors be teaching their students how to read and write?

My work with Southeast Asian and Latino children is meaningful to me. But disappointment builds when I see bright children condemned to a secondary class of citizenship simply because something has gone wrong with their education.

Those on both sides of the education initiative must find ways to work with each other, because children of high potential are being lost along the way, every day.

PATRICIA K. GAUNT

Tustin

* The English for the Children initiative is the only way the people of California can break the grip the bilingual lobby has on the schools of our state.

Through either neglect or a lack of courage, the Legislature and the bureaucrats in the state Department of Education continue to deny generation after generation of students limited in English or who do not speak it the benefits of an education that teaches them to function in English.

Now I see that my own professional organization, the California Teachers Assn., is ignoring the wishes of its members and is using its money to oppose the initiative (Oct. 29).

For several years, I served as the president of the Westminster Teachers Assn., a chapter of the California Teachers Assn. Our school district has a large number of limited- and non-English-speaking students, and our teachers were harassed and threatened with dismissal if they did not master and teach in Vietnamese and/or Spanish.

In spite of our problems, the CTA did nothing to help us. As a result, our chapter took matters into its own hands and helped elect a new school board majority committed to instructing students in English.

Since that time, Westminster has developed a program for instructing students in English and obtained a waiver from the state Department of Education allowing the district to implement the program. The program has proved to be very successful, and the district is now seeking to make its program permanent.

This only proves that there is more than one way to teach students, and that is what the English for the Children initiative is all about. If it is passed, parents would be allowed to choose whether they would like their children in a class where the instruction is in English or another language. As it is now, it is almost impossible for parents to get their children into English-speaking classes.

It is disappointing, but not surprising, that the CTA is failing to do the right thing. The CTA has lost touch with its members and will not be able to deliver the votes to defeat this initiative.

CAROLYN ANDERSON

Garden Grove

* I was disappointed that the CTA took a position to oppose the English for the Children initiative, since this initiative has the support of teachers. We support this initiative because giving parents decision-making power makes sense and English immersion programs work.

The assertion that teaching in English is harmful is an insult to all of us who teach English learners in English. In multilingual classrooms, teachers have had to acquire skills and implement English immersion programs to teach all children, whether they speak Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese or Spanish. We work hard to ensure that our students have the best education possible and take great pride in the outstanding progress our students make in learning English.

Teachers, who see $19 of their dues designated for the CTA’s initiative fund, will be outraged to see the CTA spending their dues to oppose an initiative that they strongly support.

I once asked my mother how she learned English. She replied, “My mother told me to go to school and learn English. So I did.”

I think Grandma had the right idea.

CAROL HALBACH

Costa Mesa