Latino Parents Decry Bilingual Programs

[Ronald Kephart]

At 9:28 AM -0400 7/20/04, Harold F. Schiffman wrote:

>The kids we were working with in Tacoma were getting hooked on television...

Yeah, we didn't have that distraction. I think there was one tv on
the island back then. Of course, almost everybody has one now, so I
don't know if my experience would be repeated or not.

I will say one other thing: Last summer it seemed to me that despite
the presence of tv, etc., the kids in the age group I spent most time
with, about 12-15, seemed to still be speaking Creole English as I
remembered it from before. I had hoped to record them and do a really
good comparative study with my recordings from the 80s, but the
requirement of my university's IRB that I get permissions signed by
children and parents kept me from doing so. People on Carriacou are
still a bit wary about signing anything... and who would blame them?

Ron