Official English

[Beverly Flanigan]

That is true, but people who quite understandably want the best for their
children can easily be persuaded that BEd would "retard" their children's
academic growth, deny them social opportunities, etc.  Furthermore, BEd can
be badly handled, just as any other form of education can, and in some
cases kids may not have been getting good schooling in either
language.  Unfortunately, Unz capitalized on these responses, and they
received lots of press in the California debate.  If local schools are well
informed about all options (immersion vs. BEd, transitional early-exit BEd
vs. late-exit BEd, literacy in one language or both, transition to L2 vs.
maintenance of both lgs, etc.--there are many options), they can make
reasonable decisions for themselves--but only if the door is left open.

At 02:27 PM 6/4/01 -0700, you wrote:
>As a matter of fact, I heard it reported, around the time California was
>passing its anti-bilingual education law, that a number of Hispanic
>families did NOT want B.E., but instead wanted their children to have the
>"immersion" that the law apparently called for, so they supported the law.
>My details have grown vague since then, and I'm not sure I ever heard the
>source of this report.  Did others hear this report as well?  If it's
>accurate, I'd like to know more about the reasons for this Hispanic support.
>
>Peter Mc.
>
>--On Monday, June 4, 2001 1:04 PM -0400 Beverly Flanigan
><flanigan at OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU> wrote:
>
>>  The point of ESL and
>>B.E. is simply to help kids over the hump.  And by the way, all families
>>want this for their children, even if they never have the chance, or take
>>the opportunity, for themselves.
>
>
>
>****************************************************************************
>                               Peter A. McGraw
>                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
>                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm