English Immersion
- Share via
* Re “End Bilingual Schooling? It Hasn’t Even Been Fully Implemented Yet,” May 3:
The Orange County Voices article by Manuel N. Gomez and Robin L. Harders was a great example of illogical thinking by some of the “academic establishment.”
Gomez and Harders state, “If language is the determining factor in economic and social success, how do we account for the lagging economic advancement of African Americans, contrasted with the accelerated advancement of Asians and Asian Americans?”
Clearly there are many factors in economic and social success, language being one. The model for immigrant success in the United States has always been immersion in the language of this country.
If the underlying unstated proposition of bilingual education is truly not to become integrated, then we should continue to implement this approach. If one accepts the immersion model of previous immigrant success, then bilingual education has been a dismal failure.
It is unfortunate that academics and “leaders” of the Hispanic community are endorsing a policy that historically has never been used by other immigrant groups and has failed miserably in California. If I lived in Mexico, I would be a fool not to learn Spanish.
SCOTT GRANT
Villa Park
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
