Bilingual Education

I recently watched a forum with Herman Badillo (I had never heard of him before) – Baldillo wikipedia link – and was struck by the frankness of his message regarding English and Spanish language challenges, economic opportunities, and the Hispanic family/community support (or supposed lack thereof) for education. The first Puerto Rican to serve in the House of Representatives, Baldillo was one of the early supporters of bilingual education in Congress. He now takes an opposite view, and has challenged the Hispanic community; he posits that their lack of focus on education is the main reason other minority/immigrant groups (Asian, Jews) have been “more successful.”

  Baldillo’s point is that it is time to move past the confines of racial/cultural stereotypes and simply insist that families put increased emphasis on helping their children become as educated as possible. And although he obviously revised (to put it mildly, as he used to be a liberal Democrat, now a Republican) his position on some of these subjects over the years, isn’t that what any intelligent, open-minded person should do – remain open to new ways of thinking as more/better/different information becomes available or situations change? I know those of us in business have to do that every day to adapt and survive…While some knee-jerk reactions to Baldillo could be indignant, I tend to agree with the general idea of working even harder on educating people as a means to move ahead in life.

  Of course Badillo is generalizing when he writes about his perceived lack of education focus within the Hispanic community; but then again we as people persistently generalize about almost everything.  That’s usually because the underlying trends are applicable. I believe we can, as a rule, tell when hate or prejudice or self-serving interests are behind the generalizing; and in those (unfortunately common) cases, portions of the message can and do get diluted and diminished. What we should remember is that even when someone has a view we don’t like or agree with there may be portions of that outlook that are true. To dismiss every bit of someone’s thoughts/words because it challenges us or is not what we want to hear is not rational or constructive. To the extreme, even pathological liars, madmen and idiots may speak some occasional truths. How about we accept the obvious challenges and move on to the feasible short and long term solutions?

  How can we deny the worthy goals of a stronger spotlight on education and much less focus on from what region the blood came from that flows through our veins. The reasons we should think about racial/cultural differences are for the cool and interesting aspects (food, dance, art, history, looks, language, dress, geography, etc.) that we can embrace and enjoy! How about a country full of multi-lingual citizens (Spanish, English, Mandarin, etc.)? What’s the downside of that? As a theoretical; even if, say one day in the future, Spanish or Mandarin became the predominant language in the U.S., how does that diminish the greatness and uniqueness of this country? www.CalaAcademy.com

  Fearful people that say or believe the culture of the U.S. will not survive if we allow/encourage people to learn and speak other languages besides English are deeply insecure and completely miss the point of how intensely the freedoms and values of the U.S. are ingrained here. Are we to believe that somehow we will become less “American” and change our collective values because of the specific language we speak? I think you’ve got to be pretty small-minded and have little faith in American values to believe that. 

  Of course education is like the rest of life (in this country at least) – you get out what you put in. Regardless of race, those who study and work the hardest (and that can include the families’ involvement) will become the most successful – kind of an obvious conclusion in general…

  And I don’t want to imply that every single person begins from the same socio-economic place in life, or that those initial differences don’t have an effect on us. But life and education in a country like the U.S. is similar to the Olympics we’ve watched in Beijing. I don’t believe the IOC gave the “poor” or “oppressed” athletes a head start on the “wealthy” or “privileged” in any of the races. It’s up to each of them to do his/her very best. Playing the victim probably won’t sway the judges or the clock. And yes, that’s a little extreme as an example, but the bottom line is, as my Dad has always told me, “It’s a dog-eat-dog world.” So let’s have compassion and understanding but insist on performance at the same time; and be realistic enough to admit and point out our mistakes and failings. That’s how we’ll always keep moving on.