Student gets a rude awakening - suspensionSixteen-year-old Zach Rubio (pictured here, bottom right) speaks like most kids. He embraces the slang of his generation and talks clearly in unaccented English. But Zach is also fluent in his dad's native language, Spanish. Speaking a few words of Spanish led to Zach getting suspended from school. The Washington Post has the story.
Tags: Education, Bilingual Education, School Discipline, Social Justice, Hispanic American, Education by Sistrunk
8 comments:
Wow...that's amazing Jaimie. How are they going to learn?
Jaime and Rose, thanks for stopping by.
Jaimie: Did you get a response to your question? ("How will they understand me?")
I know that a debate continues among educators on the subject of bilingual education. It would be interesting to know if your school district has a policy addressing this issue. My guess is that your school had many Latino students.
Interesting. Thanks, Jaimie.
Intolerance. This story and others like it makes me so upset.
i would think the school system would be more concerned with the child learning by any means necessary as opposed to getting caught up in the language it takes for the child to learn.
what utter nonsense.
Brea and Nikki - so true! But if a kid walks up to me and says "pushe," I'll know what it means. Thanks, Jaimie. :-)
While it should be a minority right to speak your own language and follow school in that language as well, there is also something to be said for the enormous advantages of all people in a nation having one language in common.
Emmanuel: Good point. Without question, there are enormous advantages when a nation speaks one common language. At the same time, there is something to say for meeting immigrant and refugee children where they are with their language skills and bringing them up to speed. I think it goes a long way to help children become proficient in English without disrespecting the their cultural roots. Thanks for stopping by.
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