This year’s “buzz” in education funding is “English language learners,” or ELL. This seems like a silly term to me, as I hope we expect all children to be learning English (and math, science, etc.), but the phrase refers to children who speak a foreign language at home.<\/p>\n
The City Paper<\/a> carries an article today about Nashville’s complaints, but rest assured that the same arguments are being made in each of the state’s four largest cities, as well as a few rural areas with growing immigrant populations.<\/p>\n Although the clamor for funding and specialized staffing is new, the problem is not: in this country, we have always had immigrant children in our schools. In Oak Ridge, we have traditionally had a more diverse array of languages than most, but even in the tiny rural school that my husband attended, there were children of migrant farm workers who spoke only Spanish at home.<\/p>\n Children adapt more easily than adults, and are able to learn a new language much more quickly through immersion. Whether Hispanic, Russian, Chinese, or any other nationality, kids can and do pick up English if they’re exposed to it every day through their peers. Although I did not attend school during my adventure as an exchange student, I went from knowing little more than “please” and “thank you” to literally dreaming in Spanish — within a few weeks’ time.<\/p>\n Do we risk doing more harm by segregating these children into special classes comprised of other non-English speaking students, thereby separating them from those from whom they would learn the language most quickly?<\/p>\n Or, is the real goal to leverage more funding from the state for yet another specialized program, serving a few at the expense of the many?<\/p>\n ALL children can learn. They will not learn at the same rate, nor will all attain the same levels of mastery in all subjects. They are, like the rest of us, unique individuals. However, to give immigrant students the best opportunity to succeed in this country, it seems that we should immerse them in our language, culture and customs in our schools.<\/p>\n Tennessee needs to provide adequate funding to educate all students, and stop wasting time and resources trying to divide an inadequate pie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This year’s “buzz” in education funding is “English language learners,” or ELL. This seems like a silly term to me, as I hope we expect all children to be learning English (and math, science, etc.), but the phrase refers to … Continue reading