Here in Texas that is always on the curriculum. Substitute teaching, I often get 1st 2nd 3rd and so on grade classes. Some are set up where teachers teach in Spanish some days and English other days. Of course they always get English from me. Although English is not my first language but the powers that be in the schools have no interest in my teaching children French.
I was subjected to Bilingual education when I first started school. They had a very effective system. On the first day of school the teacher would say in French. "This is the last time you will hear French. Everything will be done in English. You'd better learn quickly or you will never get out of the first grade."
Luckily I took to English and had no problem. Some of friends had me raise my hand and ask the teacher if they could go to the rest room. At first, teachers refused to let them. After several "accidents" small and otherwise they acceded.
Is there bilingual educations in the schools your kids go to? What do you think of Bilingual education?
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Comments: 17
John, I agree I have always been grateful that I learned two languages. It has sometimes caused problems when I am writing something. Some of you may have noticed that my phrasing is sometimes a little strange. You know French, everything is either male or female and we don't say a white house, we say a house white. ETC LOL
Children are "age appropriate" at 5-6, some sooner depending on I.Q. level.
I think the old fashion way of having the foreign speaking children immersed in the new language will far out benefit them over the bi lingual. Japanese, Chinese French, Italian Germans, Russian, and all the other immigrants understood that since business and medical are done in English, it is to each person's benefit to learn English as fast and well as they can.
To maintain a bilingual approach penalizes the children... they learn neither language well.
California's bi-lingual program has failed miserably.
My children all attended a Spanish Immersion school. My reason for sending them was not to learn Spanish per se, but to stretch their skills in communication, to understand that they weren't the Pre-Copernicus earth, and to think outside-the-box. Cliché, I know, but also a truism.
Learning another language also empowers a child/person because s/he knows she can do something so many people, esp. in the States, cannot.
This post is wonderful, Lionel. The topic is one of my favorites.