Balancing Politics and Pedagogy

Balancing Politics and Pedagogy

Thesis: Research over the past thirty years shows conflicting evidence for or against bilingual education leading to a heated debate between educators and politicians with bilingual education becoming a scapegoat for a number of educational issues, perhaps hiding the real causes of Hispanic difficulties from the critics.

Proposition 227, the so-called "English for Children" law, abolished thirty years of bilingual education in California in June, 1998, forcing students who are not fluent in English into all-English classes in all subjects all the time. Bilingual education, according to Krashen, is the target of critics who list a number of objections (1). Newspapers and TV are often against bilingual education. They say that bilingual education is not functioning, while students learn English very well without it. They also say that the majority of parents and teachers are not in favor of it. Another argument is that bilingual education is only for Spanish speakers and not for those who have different writing systems. In addition, it is true that there are not enough teachers for bilingual education (1). Furthermore, the dropout rate of Hispanic children in the U.S. is still high even after thirty years of efforts. Research of the past thirty years shows no justification for bilingual education, claims Porter (28). However, it may be a fallacy to conclude that bilingual education is not working. Bilingual education has become a scapegoat for a number of educational issues, perhaps hiding the real causes of Hispanic difficulties from the critics.

The issue of bilingual education is not new. In fact, its history in the U.S. has vacillated between acceptance and rejection. During the nineteenth century, instruction was given in a wide variety of foreign languages, such as German, Polish, Italian, Dutch or any other language that parents demanded. Between 1897 and 1915, thirteen states changed their policies to requiring English instruction in basic subjects such as math, science, and geography from fears of a so-called "babel of tongues" (Zimmerman 39). By the end of World War I, thirty-seven states had limited foreign language instruction including explicit prohibitions on German in favor of "100 percent Americanism" (39). After the war, public schools became open to a wide range of foreign language instruction; however, in fact, only 20 percent of high school students were taught in any non-English language class by 1949. Immigrant parents, says Zimmerman, wanted their children to learn English as a vehicle of social mobility in America instead of taking courses in their native languages (39).