English, reading: Texas curriculum must be inclusive

In the state of Texas, 47 percent of the more than 4.6 million public-school students are Hispanic.

[Northeast Resident]

I have had children in the Texas Schools off and on since 1970. At that time Headstart was the program to help non-English speakers learn the language. Since those days hudreds of thousands of children have passed through the program no more literate in English than when they entered. I see young adults who went through 13-16 years of school in TX and still cannot compose a sentence in English and who still choose to mix English and Spanish when they speak. We do not need more studies on how to assimilate these students. We need to send them to an immersion program so that they actually learn English before being placed into the mainstream classes. They will learn faster and easier once they have mastered the language. We are wasting billions of dollars to try and teach a certain group in their native tongue when we should be teaching them the language they need to be successful in this nation.

[Bikerknight]

Very much multi-cultural "ado" about nothing.

"Inclusive" is just another way of saying "ineffective". The mechanism demanded for showing "inclusiveness" in this article is racial quotas at the state school board sub-committee level. What should be proposed as academic standards for English and Reading (presumably r the reading of "english" material) cannot be determined on merely objective terms? We must have a Mexican-American on the panel?(And Mexican-American is what you meant when you said "Hispanic" and "from the border" in the same requirement statement, EPT Staff!) This article was really only a call for for the retention of lower academic standards for the sake of multi-cultural sensitivity.
Texas school districts have spent at least the last twenty years sacrificing all other considerations on the altar of the "multi-cultural" accomodation of children who do not speak English because their parents don't- or won't- speak English in their homes.
The results have been entirely negative. Low academic standards never actually helped anyone to succeed in life. They do make people "feel" better about themselves, but they do not balance checkbooks, they do not make budgets, and they do not write resumes.
It would be patently untrue to insist that high school children must learn English or they will surely fail in life. There are many jobs, particularly here along the border, that really do not require a mastery of standard written English; either the production or consumption, thereof. Many jobs working with the public require some degree of ability to speak Spanish: customer service representative postions at local utilities; retail sales postions downtown; legal interpreters for courts and law firms. If these njormal forms of employment are not satisfactory, many positions in the local recreational pharmaceutical distribution infrastructure are also available.
That said, not one of these options offers lifetime employment and advancement for one who cannot speak, read, and write well the language of his chosen occupation.
Okay EPT, you're up. Please show me how low expectations, poor academic standards, and the inevitablly poor performance that follow them benefit this or any community that must vie against others to attract businesses to our area.

[Bikerknight]

El PAso Times Staff,
Since you refuse to accept criticism of your point of view, however reasoned and however phrased, perhaps you should just remove this comment feature from all of your articles? Or you could make it clear in your posting instructions that only fawning praise of staff products will be accepted.
The El Paso Times Staff: intellectual lightweights and professional victims all.

[Jesse]

Boy, our country is going down the tubes with all these illegals.

[Jitney]

Bikerknight wrote:

Very much multi-cultural "ado" about nothing.
"Inclusive" is just another way of saying "ineffective". The mechanism demanded for showing "inclusiveness" in this article is racial quotas at the state school board sub-committee level. What should be proposed as academic standards for English and Reading (presumably r the reading of "english" material) cannot be determined on merely objective terms? We must have a Mexican-American on the panel?(And Mexican-American is what you meant when you said "Hispanic" and "from the border" in the same requirement statement, EPT Staff!) This article was really only a call for for the retention of lower academic standards for the sake of multi-cultural sensitivity.
Texas school districts have spent at least the last twenty years sacrificing all other considerations on the altar of the "multi-cultural" accomodation of children who do not speak English because their parents don't- or won't- speak English in their homes.
The results have been entirely negative. Low academic standards never actually helped anyone to succeed in life. They do make people "feel" better about themselves, but they do not balance checkbooks, they do not make budgets, and they do not write resumes.
It would be patently untrue to insist that high school children must learn English or they will surely fail in life. There are many jobs, particularly here along the border, that really do not require a mastery of standard written English; either the production or consumption, thereof. Many jobs working with the public require some degree of ability to speak Spanish: customer service representative postions at local utilities; retail sales postions downtown; legal interpreters for courts and law firms. If these njormal forms of employment are not satisfactory, many positions in the local recreational pharmaceutical distribution infrastructure are also available.
That said, not one of these options offers lifetime employment and advancement for one who cannot speak, read, and write well the language of his chosen occupation.
Okay EPT, you're up. Please show me how low expectations, poor academic standards, and the inevitablly poor performance that follow them benefit this or any community that must vie against others to attract businesses to our area.

Your post is refreshing, articulate and honest, which cannot be refuted.

[Agreed]

Bikerknight wrote:

Very much multi-cultural "ado" about nothing.
"Inclusive" is just another way of saying "ineffective". The mechanism demanded for showing "inclusiveness" in this article is racial quotas at the state school board sub-committee level. What should be proposed as academic standards for English and Reading (presumably r the reading of "english" material) cannot be determined on merely objective terms? We must have a Mexican-American on the panel?(And Mexican-American is what you meant when you said "Hispanic" and "from the border" in the same requirement statement, EPT Staff!) This article was really only a call for for the retention of lower academic standards for the sake of multi-cultural sensitivity.
Texas school districts have spent at least the last twenty years sacrificing all other considerations on the altar of the "multi-cultural" accomodation of children who do not speak English because their parents don't- or won't- speak English in their homes.
The results have been entirely negative. Low academic standards never actually helped anyone to succeed in life. They do make people "feel" better about themselves, but they do not balance checkbooks, they do not make budgets, and they do not write resumes.
It would be patently untrue to insist that high school children must learn English or they will surely fail in life. There are many jobs, particularly here along the border, that really do not require a mastery of standard written English; either the production or consumption, thereof. Many jobs working with the public require some degree of ability to speak Spanish: customer service representative postions at local utilities; retail sales postions downtown; legal interpreters for courts and law firms. If these njormal forms of employment are not satisfactory, many positions in the local recreational pharmaceutical distribution infrastructure are also available.
That said, not one of these options offers lifetime employment and advancement for one who cannot speak, read, and write well the language of his chosen occupation.
Okay EPT, you're up. Please show me how low expectations, poor academic standards, and the inevitablly poor performance that follow them benefit this or any community that must vie against others to attract businesses to our area.

Wow - if I hadn't been edumicated in Texas I woulda said exactly what you said.