Our own Rebecca Hinson, teacher at South Grade Elementary, is in a contest to get a Fedex small business grant.
Rebecca says, "In 2006, one of my Maya kindergarten art students never smiled, never spoke, and never looked you in the eye. His name was Tomas. It is common for immigrant children to remain in 'the silent phase' for weeks or even months, but Tomas rarely spoke from kindergarten through grade 4. I tried everything to reach him, but nothing worked. After presenting the art of Tecún Umán to Tomas’s class, he got up from his seat, walked over, looked me in the eye, and said 'thank you'.”
I currently have 3 series of books in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole. Art of the United States of America, Art of the Caribbean, and Art of Central America. I just exhibited at my first national trade show, the National Association of Bilingual Education (NABE). My booth was mobbed. My presentations were well received. I would use the grant to fund exhibits at six major tradeshows. CABE, TABE, SSTESOL, NMABE, TESOL, NYSABE, and a few smaller regional TESOL shows.
Is this what we want? Bi-lingual education?
ReplyDeleteRebecca does an outstanding job.
ReplyDeletehow can you support anyone that teaches illegals. That goes against your very fiber.
ReplyDeleteIt is not the fault of these little children that their parents made a decision to break our laws. The more that they are educated and learn English and assimilate, the better off they and we will be. BUILD THE WALL and take all of this burden off the U.S. taxpayers for any future illegals coming into our country.
ReplyDeleteI saw these children coming out of South Grade the other day, and to be sure, they have difficulties that the first generation European children didn't have to deal with. However, the Vietnamese children must have had some of the same issues, and I don't remember them being offered two languages. I'm sure Ms. Hinson is a wonderful person, but maybe two years of kindergarten would be an alternative. Having said that, I am in favor of all children learning two languages, but not necessarily in this setting. How about Saturday morning classes, and required visits to LW Library.
ReplyDeleteThe Lake worth Library is a wonderful place for them to go and learn. They have classes catering to Hispanic children there I believe.
ReplyDeleteChildren in dual language academically outperform students who learn in only one language. That is why dual is being adopted nationwide in many languages, not just English/Spanish.
ReplyDelete