Susan Imrie, having been educated by a prior email from an Amigos' parent on the success of the Amigos School (most especially for Latinos), now says bravo to the Amigos School after having voted for the Unz Referendum that tried to eliminate all bilingual education, including the Amigos School. Gee, Susan, you voted without real information on bilingual education. Many people, along with parents from Amigos, spent months organizing at the legislature to stop the effects of that referendum and succeeded only by getting an exclusion for two-way bilingual schools--a kind of 50-50 English and another language structure. Thus Amigos was saved, but unfortunately hundreds of students have been plopped into English-only classes and have lost important development because their ability to think in Spanish has no value and it takes years to develop a facility to think in English. Since I worked against this referendum heralded by Mr. Baker, Susan and others, I heard why people were supporting it. I spent many weekends at shopping centers and other public venues talking with people on the subject. On the top of the list was, I don't want to be around others speaking a language I don't understand. Then, I can't understand the waitresses at Wendy's (or other such restaurants/coffee houses) and thus think foreigners should learn good English, etc. It rarely had anything to do with how kids learn, or children at all. It was more so about the kids' parents who have limited English and are employed in the service jobs. Peoples' votes for the most part really had little to do with knowing how bilingual programs worked, and rather the fear or dislike or discomfort with people who spoke other languages motivated their vote against programs that allowed for any language other than English! And Susan Imrie proved the point. She knew nothing about her own local Amigos School or the English/Portuguese program and yet, voted to destroy them.
Susan Imrie, having been educated by a prior email from an Amigos' parent on the success of the Amigos School (most especially for Latinos), now says bravo to the Amigos School after having voted for the Unz Referendum that tried to eliminate all bilingual education, including the Amigos School. Gee, Susan, you voted without real information on bilingual education. Many people, along with parents from Amigos, spent months organizing at the legislature to stop the effects of that referendum and succeeded only by getting an exclusion for two-way bilingual schools--a kind of 50-50 English and another language structure. Thus Amigos was saved, but unfortunately hundreds of students have been plopped into English-only classes and have lost important development because their ability to think in Spanish has no value and it takes years to develop a facility to think in English. Since I worked against this referendum heralded by Mr. Baker, Susan and others, I heard why people were supporting it. I spent many weekends at shopping centers and other public venues talking with people on the subject. On the top of the list was, I don't want to be around others speaking a language I don't understand. Then, I can't understand the waitresses at Wendy's (or other such restaurants/coffee houses) and thus think foreigners should learn good English, etc. It rarely had anything to do with how kids learn, or children at all. It was more so about the kids' parents who have limited English and are employed in the service jobs. Peoples' votes for the most part really had little to do with knowing how bilingual programs worked, and rather the fear or dislike or discomfort with people who spoke other languages motivated their vote against programs that allowed for any language other than English! And Susan Imrie proved the point. She knew nothing about her own local Amigos School or the English/Portuguese program and yet, voted to destroy them.