Talking "furrin lengwidge" is now illegal in Kansas?

[Tonchi]

I'm wondering why nobody has jumped on the story that a Latino kid was suspended from school in Kansas today, for the high crime of speaking Spanish outside class to one of his friends? I'm looking for a thread to that story now.

Looks like after Kansas schools get rid of all those godless science teachers who refuse to see the truth of Creationism they want to wipe out anybody who won't accept the English language as their savior as well

[Perry Winkle]

http://www.kansascitykansan.com/arti...ocal/news4.txt

another interesting kansas story:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/12....ap/index.html
Kansas Anti-Creationist Professor (forced?) to Resign

[Beestie]

This is just flat-out unbelievable.

What in the flying hell is wrong with those people?!

[Griff]

"I was trying to be nice to her. I asked her why she did not want me to speak Spanish and she got mad. She said 'I don't want to hear it in my building.' "

If we get too many more control freak principal stories we'll have to start a thread to track them.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Beestie

This is just flat-out unbelievable.

What in the flying hell is wrong with those people?!

One person.....petty tyrant. "Those people" will show their stripes when we find out how the tyrant is dealt with.

From Grant's second link;

On Monday, Mirecki was treated at a Lawrence hospital for head injuries after he said he was beaten by two men on a country road. He said the men referred to the creationism course. Law enforcement officials were investigating.

[wolf]

They'll send her to sensitivity training, give her a new position and move her to the "central office", and increase her salary by 15%.

[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. "

[Troubleshooter]

All we need to do now is to get the nonsense the fundamentalist speak declared a foreign language and we'll be fine.

[richlevy]

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.

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?

Everytime I make a call to a business that's any larger than Mom and Pop and cousin Joe, I am treated to an automated recording which advises me to press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish. Colorado has got to be one of the most backward states in the union, but even it seems to recognize that there is a significant percentage of the population out there that is most comfortable transacting business in Spanish.

Certainly, it is very important for children whose native tongue is Spanish to become proficient in English, as well, if they wish to get far in the US as adults. However, disciplining a student for speaking Spanish outside the classrooms reminds me of the stories of Native American children who were taken away to boarding schools and punished for speaking in their own tongue. This country lost a major portion of its native heritage with the loss of those languages. One thing I love about being in the 4 corners area is the chance to hear the Navajo language on the airwaves, and look at the great contribution the Navajo code talkers made in WWII. That principle should be exiled to South America.

[Elspode]

I've been following it, but I didn't bring it up because, frankly, it is embarassing. I work right down the street from that school district. I've been in their headquarters building.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by Elspode

I've been in their headquarters building.

Great. In addition to all of this crap they have lousy security.

Mari, I agree about the boarding schools. However, while doing my mandatory fact check for my last post I discovered that the U.S. goverment mandated the prohibition of native language, and not the schools themselves.

Originally Posted by richlevy

Mari, I agree about the boarding schools. However, while doing my mandatory fact check for my last post I discovered that the U.S. goverment mandated the prohibition of native language, and not the schools themselves.

Oh, well, if the GOVERNMENT mandated it, I guess that was OK. Didn't the Souix have WMD's? I'm sure Paraguay does.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Some people ought to resign out of sheer shame. I speak three languages besides English, and Spanish is one -- I don't count once being just about able to order lunch in Turkish as exactly speaking it.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Tonchi

Looks like after Kansas schools get rid of all those godless science teachers who refuse to see the truth of Creationism they want to wipe out anybody who won't accept the English language as their savior as well

A school teacher in (I think it was) upper NY State found herself under attack from right wing religious extremists (more intolerants) because her students were signing a song using the expression "Happy Holidays". The extremists accused her of changing the words from "Happy Christmas". How satanic! Using the term "Happy Holidays" is not acceptable when right wing religious extremists have decided they must save us from ourselves.

Fortunately for that teacher, the song was originally written using "Happy Holidays". Otherwise we would have had another Spanish Inquisition. As we all know, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. Happy Holidays to ya all – because I remember why people fled Europe to settle here.