Possibly a debate...A school for immigrants?

[Minnie824]

I was looking at cnn.com and came across this article....what do you think?
http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/09/08/immigrant.school.ap/index.html

 

[totalia]

I think its a really stupid idea. It's segregation. People died to put a stop to segregation. It shouldn't be started again for any reason.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

The article doesn't say and I'm curious to know whether or not students will be forced to attend this school or if it is an option they have?

I think the idea could work, my concern is that when you seperate students into a new building, you are also seperating them during break time and in the hallways etc.
Since most of these students live in households where Spanish is spoken 100%, this type of school is eliminating a good deal of the English immersion which might be the best chance these kids have to begin proficient English speakers.

 

[EsmeraldaX]

It's a tough call really. First off, they are going to have to then segregate the students again by which language they speak, find teachers for all those languages etc...

I can see their reasoning behind this, but I tend to think overall, kids blend into general society more at a regular school where they are taking English as a second language along with regular classes.

 

[Crankyshank]

Hmm.. I don't know if I like the idea of an entire school devoted to immigrants because that smacks of segregation. However maybe they should have a program for a year or 2 like this and then integrate the child into mainstream public school.

 

[Doug123]

Bad, bad idea.

We all benefit from diversity. Why in the heck would you want to eliminate it?

 

[TigerBear]

I think it would be interesting to look at the research in this area. I am willing to bet that students who are in this type of program actually are more likely to succeed and be successfully integrated into American society. We are not talking about students in first or second grade in which clearly an immersion program would be best. Rather, these are secondary students who are in need of intensive English instruction. If this is the student's choice, why not allow them this type of extra support? Chances are they simply will not receive what they need on a regular campus.

 

[Kendra17]

In California, they had a bilingual education program for a while. When they finally put the Spanish-speaking children IN with the English-speaking children, they found that those speaking English as a second language improved vastly--and, very quickly, too.

I think segregated schools such as this are a bad idea, but I do think ful-tutoring, and options to help the new children assimilate quickly that are held IN THE school are still necessary options.

So, just interested, and I don't want to change the subject. Remember the school for gay teens that opened a few years ago--and was funded publically--in New York. . .what were your thoughts about that?

If there are some groups of children who WANT a segregated school--such as the gay teens that CHOSE to attend that school, or a school specifically for girls (that would do better without the boys), etc., would any of those be acceptable?

 

[vernon]

I think it's a very poor idea, you run the risk of setting up a whole subclass where English isn't spoken or understood to the degree it is needed if people are capable of functioning fully in American society. They may get on ok in their little area but what happens if that person wants to travel to a part of America where spanish isn't widely spoken. It would be like moving to a different country for them. English isn't just the American language, it is THE GLOBAL language.

IMHO they should be concentrating on making sure the kids have some type of functioning ability to speak and understand English. I believe that should be the immediate priority, our world lives on communication, if you're unable to communicate in your national language you are at a serious disadvantage. The best way to learn a language is to be surrounded by it 24/7 , the temptation in a separate school is that English would not be used in everyday life of the school, therefore dramatically slowing down the learning of the language.