Immigrant children are causing the downfall of public education, right? At least that is what certain anti-immigrant groups would like you to think.
In my previous post concerning the California gubernatorial candidates and their stance on immigration reform, there were comments blaming the decline of public education on immigrants — legal and illegal — and their unwillingness to learn, to assimilate.
Education’s failings have long been a political debate, but to place blame on immigrant students without acknowledging that in many ways the system continues to fail them, is downright hypocritical. According to a recent publication, in California, half of kids aged 6 to 12 are children of immigrants, a large majority of them U.S. citizens.
Many of these children, however, fall into the commonly vilified category of bilingual, a term that draws its harshest critiques when combined with education. God forbid we acknowledge a foreign language in a public school, much less have a teacher actually teach in one — when the reality is that students not only learn better, but also are able to integrate much faster, if at an early age bilingual education is accessible.
Posted via web from Firesaw
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