Why wouldn't you pick immersion?
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Anonymous
Yeah. Between PP and the guy who cuts his grass, I think I know which one I'd rather Be around. |
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Anonymous
Sure, the fact that our neighborhood school is a pretty good school was also important. But again, seems weird to assert that people taking this into account are doing so because it is "trendy." |
Anonymous
| Neighborhood schools are not trendy, that is ridiculous. |
Anonymous
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Yes, neighborhood schools aren't trendy; it's what most of us grew up with ourselves. I'm one of the pro-neighborhood PPs--I send my kid to one because it's a good school, I like the sense of community that forms around neighborhood schools, and I believe that every child should have a strong neighborhood school.
As a side note: I am not, however, anti-charter--I think they're great for offering specialized curricula that aren't available at neighborhood schools (e.g., immersion, Montessori, arts focus). I do *not* like when charters in effect replace neighborhood schools (as in New Orleans). |
Anonymous
Having lived in a 3rd world country, many people bank on American's thinking that. |
Anonymous
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I think the "guy who cuts grass" and the "my maid" comments were just racism plain and simple.
Go fuck yourselves! |
Anonymous
Employer of lawn service here. Point out in my post where I said the guy who cuts my grass is a "loser" or that I "think he is" a loser. Or even implied that. Here's what I do think: I think he and the millions of bilingual people living in the US aren't necessarily geniuses with massive advantages over monolingual people in the US. This contradicts the Kool-Aid fueled mantra of many young white DC parents who like to post on DCUM. That is all. |
Anonymous
Research shows that, all things being equal, bilingual education has brain development and other academic benefits. Your comparison is bogus since you are comparing against a population that had worse education and several other disadvantages from the start. |
Anonymous
What percentage increase is it? Are you talking 50% smarter? Or 0.5% smarter? |
Anonymous
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Just because you didn't explicitly call him a loser doesn't mean it wasn't a clear implication.
If you don't want your child to have all of the advantages public education in DC can offer, great. There's a huge line for them anyway. And maybe you just think that immersion won't work for your kid. Totally fine!! But to make a comment that equates speaking Spanish with cutting grass? That's racism. Don't kid yourself. |
Anonymous
Smarter than a racist like you. |
Anonymous
The guy who cuts my grass speaks French, and he's from Haiti. Now who's bias is shining through? 
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Anonymous
Still you. I assumed Spanish because it's the dominant foreign language in DC. You assumed your lawn guy is a loser because he cuts grass and is foreign. Also you're assuming I'm white. I'm Hispanic. If you weren't such a disgusting racist, you would say something like "so and so in my office speaks 6 languages and it's never helped him/her." But you don't have that story because on almost every count speaking languages is a plus, not a minus. And I have dozens of anecdotes from people who couldn't get jobs because they were monolingual. As I've said before, if you don't think immersion is for your kid, I totally get it. It's tough to support a foreign language you don't know. It's tough to watch your kid struggle. And you can definitely learn another language later in life (I learned 4 later in life!). But you're just a racist. |
Anonymous
| I doubt that any of the supposed research showing the benefits of bilingualism apply to the immersion model as actually practiced in DC. |
Anonymous
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Bilingual Benefits
Recent studies show that bilingual students outperform their monolingual peers in a variety of ways. They tend to score better on standardized tests, read sooner, solve problems better, excel at math and have an edge in the workplace. Higher Test Scores Evidence supporting bilingual benefits comes from a school district in Florida that specializes in bilingual education. A report from Dr. Joanne H. Urrutia, Director of the district's Bilingual Education and World Languages Department, shows that students who are bilingual scored significantly higher on verbal and math sections of the Florida standardized test than those who spoke only English. Educators compared the verbal and math scores of two groups of fourth and fifth grade students from 16 elementary schools. One group had been taught in a bilingual environment since Kindergarten, learning 60% in English and 40% in another language. The other group had been taught in English only. The study showed that bilingual students scored 23 to 34 points higher than their monolingual peers in both the verbal and math sections of the Florida test. Urrutia believes the higher math scores may indicate that bilingual students have advanced thinking skills and have a greater ability to think abstractly. The higher verbal scores may be because learning a second language inherently builds more vocabulary and better language skills in not only the students' second language, but also in their first. Reading Readiness Recently, York University linguist, Dr. Ellen Bialystok, found that children who are raised bilingual learn to read sooner than their monolingual classmates. In her study, tests were given to preschool children to analyze their understanding of letters. Monolingual children could recite the letters but could not read without the aid of pictures. However, bilingual preschoolers understood the written language without pictures and scored twice as high on language tests. Overall, the bilingual students were better prepared to tie symbols to words and words to meaning. Problem Solving Several studies show that bilingual children are better problem solvers. In Dr. Bialystok's studies, both bilingual and monolingual preschool children were asked to look at a picture and solve a problem. Bilingual children were twice as likely to solve the problem than their monolingual peers. It is widely thought that bilingual children are able to tune out one language while speaking the other. And when asked to solve a problem, they use these same editing skills to focus only on what is important and filter out what’s not. Math Some studies have shown that the benefits of being bilingual are also evident in math. Because bilingual students are able to think abstractly, conceptualize and solve problems, they use these same skills to excel in math. Students who graduate from FISW tend to be a year ahead in their math classes, often taking 7th grade math. Social and Economic Rewards The social and economic rewards of being bilingual are not limited to schooling. Children who use more than one language are also exposed to more than one culture, which leads to building acceptance and understanding of others. In the long term, the ability to communicate in more than language, and the ability to consider different viewpoints and cultures, will provide an economic edge when it’s time to choose a career. Research and excerpts from "Is English Enough for your 21st Century Baby? - Benefits of Raising Bilingual Babies," by Olga Bichachi. To read the full article, click http://www.spongelearners.com/benefits_and_advantages_of_being_bilingual |