Que............I no speak English

The debate might be over bilingual education and English immersion. But I will show you a different way that English immersion indoctrinates in students. Early 1990's Riverside, Ca I was in elementary school when they started to take me into a different room. That room happened to be full of Latino students and we were told to forget our original language (Spanish). I asked the teach why do we need to forget Spanish and all we were told was because it's a dirty language. After a few days we were told to speak English only at home, but I was a little adiment because my parents only spoke Spanish. After a few years in that class I had forgotten how to read and write in Spanish. I had forgotten most of my Spanish. To then they had achieved their goal but in the process made lots of kids forget their roots. I began to act more and more “white” and even denied that I was Mexican. But that soon finished and I was in high school and took a Spanish class of which I failed miserably. Once in the Marines I started to hang out with lots of Latinos and they would give me shit about not knowing how to speak it correctly. I's been years since then I have finally learned how to read and write in Spanish and my speaking skill got a lot better.

My own experience only show one part of the debate, but I believe that it show that English immersion only succeed in one aspect of the matter. That being learning how to speak, read, write in English. This puts the student in a big disadvantage but denying the children their fundamental right to know their own culture. Bilingual education teaches student not only how to learn English but also teaches Spanish it incorporates both. This being America the land of immigrants and a melting pot of civilization should be less xenophobe of others languages and culture. That one of the reasons that this nation has no official language. forcing children to forget another language is but one of many reasons that our public school system is a failure.