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Old 12-10-2005, 11:16 AM   #11
richlevy
King Of Wishful Thinking
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Philadelphia Suburbs
Posts: 6,669
Quote:
Originally Posted by wolf
The principal handled things poorly, but ... the young man "spoke spanish to his friends to help them" but by doing so he's reducing their chances to become proficient in english ... and recieve proper correction from someone who is proficient in both languages.

"It's just natural for me to speak to them in Spanish," Zach said. "Some of them don't speak English that well, and it is easier for them. "
I think it is more the paranoia of having students know a 'secret' language that the listener is too lazy to learn.

I'm not saying that instruction should not be in English, I'm just saying that public schools are not intended as 'total immersion' situations. In the classroom the teacher may have a right to restrict speech. But in the hallways and the lunchroom?

It reminds me of this guy.

Quote:
To teach Indian school children in their native tongue is practically to exclude English, and to prevent them from acquiring it. This language, which is good enough for a white man and a black man, ought to be good enough for the red man. It is also believed that teaching an Indian youth in his own barbarous dialect is a positive detriment to him. The first step to be taken toward civilization, toward teaching the Indians the mischief and folly of continuing in their barbarous practices, is to teach them the English language. The impracticability, if not impossibility, of civilizing the Indians of this country in any other tongue than our own would seem to be obvious, especially in view of the fact that the number of Indian vernaculars is even greater than the number of tribes. ...

But it has been suggested that this order, being mandatory, gives a cruel blow to the sacred rights of the Indians. Is it cruelty to the Indian to force him to give up his scalping-knife and tomahawk? Is it cruelty to force him to abandon the vicious and barbarous sun dance, where he lacerates his flesh, and dances and tortures himself even unto death? Is it cruelty to the Indian to force him to have his daughters educated and married under the laws of the land, instead of selling them at a tender age for a stipulated price into concubinage to gratify the brutal lusts of ignorance and barbarism?
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