Comments on: New language immersion school, a year later

By: carol

carol — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:25:16 +0000

Hi, I live in San Leandro. I am interested to find a dual immersion spanish program in the public/public charter schools close to home in San Leandro. Does anyone know any that exist? Will appreciate the information. Thanks!

By: J.R.

J.R. — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:18:53 +0000

Sure the divorces are a factor, and so is the fact that our children average much less class time than students in many other nations. How are even our “best” teachers supposed to cover material with any kind of “rigor” with less class time? Much less the incompetent teachers. As for bad teachers yeah, these “so-called” educational professional bear a large measure of responsibility. Unfortunately, any moron can pro-create and what is worse “Moronic people” seem to pro-create excessively. Alas, pointing fingers elsewhere does not lessen the responsibility of the teacher. A banner above the school reads “Responsibility: Taking credit or criticism for one’s own actions”! A lot of great teachers I know just shrug and say ” It is my job and my duty to teach my children to the best of my ability, and the other issues will take care of themselves”. You are free to find another career where you might feel less persecuted Harold, at any time. It’s called freedom.

By: harold

harold — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:46:50 +0000

does a +50% divorce rate in America have anything to do with, how well our students are doing?

too many video games?

is the legalization and legitimization of “medical” marijuana, holding a huge segment of our students back?

or is just “bad” Teachers?

By: J.R.

J.R. — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:28:01 +0000

Thats my point, the children are not(as a whole becoming proficient in the core subjects and yet you want to add a variable(foreign language)that is not so important, at this juncture? As a district we are at or near the bottom in California, and worse yet if you don’t factor in the “schools in the hills” we are in subterranean range academically. Thats just pathetic, and it doesn’t have to be that way. Accountability has been nothing more than a buzzword, well things are going to change now because the money has dried up.

By: Nextset

Nextset — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:20:41 +0000

Gordon Danning: Sorry about imputing OUSD policy to you. Please remind me your position in this education issue, I probably did identify you with OUSD.

As far as the students in the middle at OUSD – You are correct they exist. My constant sniping about the fate of the proles does concern the black dropouts (who are probably lower than proles) and the black “graduates” who are illiterate and uneducated in the eyes of prospective employers and mates. I am worried that combined, these people do represent a majority of the black students and personify the abject failure of OUSD. I do not give OUSD any credit for “educating” the people who could easily educate themselves with either homeschooling or relatively simple online coursework – or even correspondenc school for that matter. OUSD and the other urban schools cannot take credit with me for people who would have been fine no matter what school they went to.

And while it’s really great we give foreign language classes to the kids of the middle class to the extent OUSD has them – really really great…

I won’t strip the proles and the underclass of the basics in education so you can provide Spanish to the children of East Bay well to do.

So I would be ready to shut down ALL of the college prep before I’d deny the proles driver’s ed.

It’s a matter of priorities and fairness to me. I’d prefer the proles to have a chance of employment before I’d worry about Ken and Barbie or Mohammad getting UC entrance requirements in.

By: Gordon Danning

Gordon Danning — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 17:00:36 +0000

Nextset:

Please stop saying “you”; I am not OUSD personified, nor do my views represent those of OUSD, nor do I even teach either elementary school or foreign language.

Nextset and JR: You both seem to assume that there are only two types of students in OUSD: 1) morons; and 2) Lowell-type elites. What of the majority of the students in the middle? Would you have OUSD offer them nothing beyond the skills needed to fill out a McDonald’s application?

JR: Again, I reiterate: “Surely we can agree that we should demand that OUSD students become proficient in ALL of the subjects, including foreign language, that are required for high school graduation.” Even assuming that we don’t do that NOW, that does not imply that it should not be our goal. I don’t accept “I can’t do it; it’s to hard” from my students, so why should my students accept that from you?

By: Nextset

Nextset — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 05:07:40 +0000

Cranky: Bet your son was not a lower class/underclass kid in a lower class school. He probably was not a product of a single mother either.

My entire point is that we should not be running OUSD according to a rad-lib fantasy of underclass kids being turned into Rhodes Scholars. You need to run the bulk of OUSD to take the sons and daughters of single mothers/underclass and routinely turn them into lower middle class and higher. Like it used to be and still is elsewhere.

The more you operate OUSD as a fantasy college prep system the higher the black drop rate is going to go and the worse the literacy rate is going to be – even if you do get a Rhodes Scholar or two (who will probably be Immigrant or Eqyptian to boot).

OUSD can have it’s college prep – just as San Francisco does. With a small selective campus (ie Lowell High). Imposing college prep on the underclass at large runs them out of the schools and accomplishes worse than nothing.

By: J.R.

J.R. — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 04:56:56 +0000

Gordon,
There are so many children in both jr & sr.high who are at very basic even remedial levels in these core subjects, and you worry about kids being able to take a foreign language(I could possibly see it being an extra enrichment for those children who are at or above grade level but not more than that)? On that note how does a child go all the way through elementary without mastering even just reading, as we’ve seen all too often? some people weren’t doing what it takes to do their job through all those grades, that’s not being very efficient.

By: Cranky Teacher

Cranky Teacher — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 03:09:31 +0000

My son was in a dual immersion program in another East Bay district throughout elementary school. The Spanish-speaking families were pleased with the results and stayed in the program consistently. It also proved an efficient way to draw middle-class families to an otherwise completely low-income school, which brings increased social capital to the school community.

Sadly, the program is now seemingly being undermined by unproven accusations it depresses ELA test scores for both participating student groups.

By: Gail

Gail — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:50:20 +0000

In the interest of historical accuracy, the anti-bilingual education initiative was Proposition 227 (209 abolished affirmative action).

More important, dual immersion programs, if well done, are wonderful. The earlier in life one learns a second language the more easily one achieves fluency, so much better to begin in kindergarten than in high school. Furthermore, I think I’ve seen research showing that children who speak more than one language develop stronger literacy skills in BOTH languages because some sort of synergistic effect takes hold. We in the U.S. are really myopic about the importance of learning other languages.

I wish my children had had this kind of opportunity when they were OUSD students. Both now speak Spanish, one proficiently, but if they’d started learning at age 5 they would have had a much easier time.