Press One For English Part II

Hi Dad

I could not agree more [an email-forward about making English the official language of the USA]. I love this song on the subject.

But I think the argument is better made that people should learn English NOT for our convenience but for their basic economic survival and so they can take their rightful places by our sides -- as equals.

This was a huge issue this past campaign. The Windham Republicans want English Immersion. It’s been wonderfully successful everywhere it’s been tried. Critics have become converts.

We have bi-lingual programs in Windham right now. We are not teaching them English under the sad misconception that we would be stealing their culture. They finally get around to starting it in 3rd or 4th grade.

First, we would not be doing any such thing. It’s something they need to know (nothing is more critical than the basic ability of speech!) in order to first do well enough on these "No Child Left Behind" tests to pass (Windham's schools are not only failing but we are contenders for last place) to keep our schools from being taken over by the state. Far more importantly however they need to know the English language so they can fulfill their potential as adults. That's what schools are for.

Second -- as was just came up in my Human Anatomy class -- little kids are not small adults who don't know anything.

Small children have amazing abilities adults lack. Its been known for a long time that brains at that stage of development are capable of learning multiple languages -- but only while they are little. It’s a biological FACT (not theory) that their developing brains have this wonderful gift but as they get older this is something they lose. That door closes just when the stupid adults make up their minds to finally teach them English as a second language. They make learning English unnecessarily difficult for all and impossible for some.

It’s a cruel irony that liberals in their mission to be more understanding and accommodating of people that are different make the mistake of sabotaging the futures of full fledged American citizens with kindness. I am convinced that while some are well meaning, others apparently want a permanent underclass they can look down upon and know exactly what harm they are doing.

One of the past Board of Ed chairman actually said tests are bad because they make kids feel bad about themselves when they don't do well on them.

It never ceases to amaze me how seriously these people are taken. I am told I am the crazy one. Remember Alice being hauled in front of the mad Queen of Hearts in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland ?

This is exactly like that.

This is basically what we said in the election in short form “Tests are Good! Welfare Bad!, English is Good!, Prison Bad!, Jobs Good!, Scrounging around for nickel deposit cans for a living Bad Bad Bad! College is Good!, Jobs are good!, Self sufficiently-Good!, Pride in yourself Good Good Good!"

Oh course with a message of hate like that we got clobbered.

You see Dad. We are mean.

-- John