Ward 6 and Miner ES: Grassroots Movement for Dual Language (Mandarin) Program

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Over 17% of students at Miner are homeless. Providing a curriculum that transfers well to other schools, and can be joined mid-year if necessary, is very important for those students. I cannot think of something much more opposed to that than Mandarin immersion.

However, if the hope is to get a program like Tyler's where there are single and dual-language classrooms in each grade, and the organizers expect all the homeless kids will go in the English-only track, I commend them for their creativity. Some parents will do almost anything--including have their kids learn a language most of them cannot support at home--in order to keep away from poor people.

If DCPS opened a Mandarin immersion program at JKLMM then you would be complaining that DCPS is opening a program that appeals to HSES parents in the "high rent" district leaving out poor kids by distance. Opening a Mandarin immersion program at Miner or JKLMM, DCPS can't win. Someone will always be bitching. Probably easier to not offer Mandarin immersion (or any other specialized program) to make the peanut gallery happy.

Or you could offer it at Thomson, which is accessible from all parts of the city, is 19% Asian (I don't know how many families speak Mandarin though), and has 60% proficiency in reading and 71% in math. Or pick a school that feeds into Roosevelt, since it's supposed to be an international academy and maybe there's a chance to attract some Yu Ying families to that feeder pattern if DCI doesn't appeal to them. Or close a school that is severely under-enrolled (or open up a vacant school) and make it a citywide lottery Mandarin immersion academy. But changing a neighborhood school that is already struggling doesn't make much sense to me, especially without tying in the destination middle and high school.

[Anonymous]

Didn't Thomson have or had a Mandarin program, not immersion, of some sort at some time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gosh. Such a negative spin on what would be a wonderful program. You can't win for losing in this city. And I bet all of the supposed homeless advocates don't have children at Miner or live in the community. I hope the organizers will ignore them and their irrelevant thoughts and go full steam ahead. There's always this assumption that we need to coddle "the poors" and they couldn't possibly want an innovative immersion program. It's pretty condescending. I'm just lucky we're at a wonderful immersion school- with a large cohort of FARMs children who are amazing and are thriving very well. You almost have to wonder if there isn't some hidden agendy from naysayers. Perhaps they want slots for themselves and so they'd rather to pretend to care about poor children when really they want immersion for themselves.

If you want to find out what the homeless families who send their kids to Miner would like, host a meeting at the homeless shelter, or at least hand out fliers there. Miner will also have a homeless outreach coordinator who can tell parents about these meetings. I'm not homeless and can't speak for them. I'm sure some families would be interested in Mandarin, some might like dual language but prefer Spanish/French/something else, and some would have questions or concerns.

And consider the possibility that there are different types of families getting FARMs (native English speakers vs. immigrants speaking the target language of your immersion school; a mom and two kids living on under $500 a month in TANF vs. the $36,000 that would still qualify for reduced-price meals; at DC General vs. in an apartment) and different types of schools (charter or PK where the kids had to win a lottery vs. neighborhood schools that have to take everyone).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn't Thomson have or had a Mandarin program, not immersion, of some sort at some time?

They do offer some Mandarin at Thomson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gosh. Such a negative spin on what would be a wonderful program. You can't win for losing in this city. And I bet all of the supposed homeless advocates don't have children at Miner or live in the community. I hope the organizers will ignore them and their irrelevant thoughts and go full steam ahead. There's always this assumption that we need to coddle "the poors" and they couldn't possibly want an innovative immersion program. It's pretty condescending. I'm just lucky we're at a wonderful immersion school- with a large cohort of FARMs children who are amazing and are thriving very well. You almost have to wonder if there isn't some hidden agendy from naysayers. Perhaps they want slots for themselves and so they'd rather to pretend to care about poor children when really they want immersion for themselves.

If you want to find out what the homeless families who send their kids to Miner would like, host a meeting at the homeless shelter, or at least hand out fliers there. Miner will also have a homeless outreach coordinator who can tell parents about these meetings. I'm not homeless and can't speak for them. I'm sure some families would be interested in Mandarin, some might like dual language but prefer Spanish/French/something else, and some would have questions or concerns.

And consider the possibility that there are different types of families getting FARMs (native English speakers vs. immigrants speaking the target language of your immersion school; a mom and two kids living on under $500 a month in TANF vs. the $36,000 that would still qualify for reduced-price meals; at DC General vs. in an apartment) and different types of schools (charter or PK where the kids had to win a lottery vs. neighborhood schools that have to take everyone).

You're probably a white person who thinks you know what's best for black people. Um, sorry. You're not that important! Again, OP. Please ignore the loud uneducation peanut gallery and move forward. People will do anything and say anything to prevent innovation for black and brown people. I'm excited as the prospect of the school and hope it works. There's example after example of immersion programs sprouting up and changing the community for the better. Miner can do it too!

[Anonymous]

+1

[Anonymous]

Actually, I find this a really interesting development! As I understand it, Maury will be offering Chinese starting in Fall 2015 (landing Brent's Chinese program, with the bonus of an added Chinese teacher). So if Miner goes that route and both feed into Eliot-Hine then that makes for an interesting and tentatively coordinated pathway between elementary and middle school. (I don't believe EH is offering French but could be wrong. Spanish more likely.)

[Anonymous]

the EH website shows a Spanish teacher but no one for French.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gosh. Such a negative spin on what would be a wonderful program. You can't win for losing in this city. And I bet all of the supposed homeless advocates don't have children at Miner or live in the community. I hope the organizers will ignore them and their irrelevant thoughts and go full steam ahead. There's always this assumption that we need to coddle "the poors" and they couldn't possibly want an innovative immersion program. It's pretty condescending. I'm just lucky we're at a wonderful immersion school- with a large cohort of FARMs children who are amazing and are thriving very well. You almost have to wonder if there isn't some hidden agendy from naysayers. Perhaps they want slots for themselves and so they'd rather to pretend to care about poor children when really they want immersion for themselves.

If you want to find out what the homeless families who send their kids to Miner would like, host a meeting at the homeless shelter, or at least hand out fliers there. Miner will also have a homeless outreach coordinator who can tell parents about these meetings. I'm not homeless and can't speak for them. I'm sure some families would be interested in Mandarin, some might like dual language but prefer Spanish/French/something else, and some would have questions or concerns.

And consider the possibility that there are different types of families getting FARMs (native English speakers vs. immigrants speaking the target language of your immersion school; a mom and two kids living on under $500 a month in TANF vs. the $36,000 that would still qualify for reduced-price meals; at DC General vs. in an apartment) and different types of schools (charter or PK where the kids had to win a lottery vs. neighborhood schools that have to take everyone).

You're probably a white person who thinks you know what's best for black people. Um, sorry. You're not that important! Again, OP. Please ignore the loud uneducation peanut gallery and move forward. People will do anything and say anything to prevent innovation for black and brown people. I'm excited as the prospect of the school and hope it works. There's example after example of immersion programs sprouting up and changing the community for the better. Miner can do it too!

I don't care what race you are. If you come to the school in the middle of the year and everyone's speaking Mandarin for part of the day, you're going to be lost. And if you leave the school and go somewhere else where they didn't spend half their time learning Chinese, it's going to be harder to catch up. Maybe there are a lot of families who are interested in it anyway. But the only way to find out is to ask them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gosh. Such a negative spin on what would be a wonderful program. You can't win for losing in this city. And I bet all of the supposed homeless advocates don't have children at Miner or live in the community. I hope the organizers will ignore them and their irrelevant thoughts and go full steam ahead. There's always this assumption that we need to coddle "the poors" and they couldn't possibly want an innovative immersion program. It's pretty condescending. I'm just lucky we're at a wonderful immersion school- with a large cohort of FARMs children who are amazing and are thriving very well. You almost have to wonder if there isn't some hidden agendy from naysayers. Perhaps they want slots for themselves and so they'd rather to pretend to care about poor children when really they want immersion for themselves.

If you want to find out what the homeless families who send their kids to Miner would like, host a meeting at the homeless shelter, or at least hand out fliers there. Miner will also have a homeless outreach coordinator who can tell parents about these meetings. I'm not homeless and can't speak for them. I'm sure some families would be interested in Mandarin, some might like dual language but prefer Spanish/French/something else, and some would have questions or concerns.

And consider the possibility that there are different types of families getting FARMs (native English speakers vs. immigrants speaking the target language of your immersion school; a mom and two kids living on under $500 a month in TANF vs. the $36,000 that would still qualify for reduced-price meals; at DC General vs. in an apartment) and different types of schools (charter or PK where the kids had to win a lottery vs. neighborhood schools that have to take everyone).

You're probably a white person who thinks you know what's best for black people. Um, sorry. You're not that important! Again, OP. Please ignore the loud uneducation peanut gallery and move forward. People will do anything and say anything to prevent innovation for black and brown people. I'm excited as the prospect of the school and hope it works. There's example after example of immersion programs sprouting up and changing the community for the better. Miner can do it too!

Can you point to example after example of DCPS immersion programs which have changed a community for the better?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a slightly different take on this. Something close to 25 percent of Miner students tested as proficient in ELAs last year. Why would introducing Mandarin, as opposed to more intensive interventions focused on mastering basic skills in English, be a good use of resources?

Can't help but think that you are then among those who - on other threads - stress how learning other languages supports (not diminishes!) reading and writing proficiency. I cannot think of a good reason why that logic would suddenly be reversed in the context of a few more challenges (not that many at Miner btw).
This reminds me of those ill-advised trans to bring play-based and exploratory programs such as Tools of the Mind to well off early childhood programs while keeping the less well off youngsters locked into desks to drill numbers and letters, thinking they should do "early literacy" instead. Well, research proved those assumptions wrong entirely. Play/project-based curricula turned out to be even more beneficial at less well off schools than they were proving to be at better off schools.

[Anonymous]

trans = trends

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gosh. Such a negative spin on what would be a wonderful program. You can't win for losing in this city. And I bet all of the supposed homeless advocates don't have children at Miner or live in the community. I hope the organizers will ignore them and their irrelevant thoughts and go full steam ahead. There's always this assumption that we need to coddle "the poors" and they couldn't possibly want an innovative immersion program. It's pretty condescending. I'm just lucky we're at a wonderful immersion school- with a large cohort of FARMs children who are amazing and are thriving very well. You almost have to wonder if there isn't some hidden agendy from naysayers. Perhaps they want slots for themselves and so they'd rather to pretend to care about poor children when really they want immersion for themselves.

If you want to find out what the homeless families who send their kids to Miner would like, host a meeting at the homeless shelter, or at least hand out fliers there. Miner will also have a homeless outreach coordinator who can tell parents about these meetings. I'm not homeless and can't speak for them. I'm sure some families would be interested in Mandarin, some might like dual language but prefer Spanish/French/something else, and some would have questions or concerns.

And consider the possibility that there are different types of families getting FARMs (native English speakers vs. immigrants speaking the target language of your immersion school; a mom and two kids living on under $500 a month in TANF vs. the $36,000 that would still qualify for reduced-price meals; at DC General vs. in an apartment) and different types of schools (charter or PK where the kids had to win a lottery vs. neighborhood schools that have to take everyone).

You're probably a white person who thinks you know what's best for black people. Um, sorry. You're not that important! Again, OP. Please ignore the loud uneducation peanut gallery and move forward. People will do anything and say anything to prevent innovation for black and brown people. I'm excited as the prospect of the school and hope it works. There's example after example of immersion programs sprouting up and changing the community for the better. Miner can do it too!

Can you point to example after example of DCPS immersion programs which have changed a community for the better?

And that does not rely on increasing the SES of the families attending the school? As gentrification is not "improving a school".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gosh. Such a negative spin on what would be a wonderful program. You can't win for losing in this city. And I bet all of the supposed homeless advocates don't have children at Miner or live in the community. I hope the organizers will ignore them and their irrelevant thoughts and go full steam ahead. There's always this assumption that we need to coddle "the poors" and they couldn't possibly want an innovative immersion program. It's pretty condescending. I'm just lucky we're at a wonderful immersion school- with a large cohort of FARMs children who are amazing and are thriving very well. You almost have to wonder if there isn't some hidden agendy from naysayers. Perhaps they want slots for themselves and so they'd rather to pretend to care about poor children when really they want immersion for themselves.

If you want to find out what the homeless families who send their kids to Miner would like, host a meeting at the homeless shelter, or at least hand out fliers there. Miner will also have a homeless outreach coordinator who can tell parents about these meetings. I'm not homeless and can't speak for them. I'm sure some families would be interested in Mandarin, some might like dual language but prefer Spanish/French/something else, and some would have questions or concerns.

And consider the possibility that there are different types of families getting FARMs (native English speakers vs. immigrants speaking the target language of your immersion school; a mom and two kids living on under $500 a month in TANF vs. the $36,000 that would still qualify for reduced-price meals; at DC General vs. in an apartment) and different types of schools (charter or PK where the kids had to win a lottery vs. neighborhood schools that have to take everyone).

You're probably a white person who thinks you know what's best for black people. Um, sorry. You're not that important! Again, OP. Please ignore the loud uneducation peanut gallery and move forward. People will do anything and say anything to prevent innovation for black and brown people. I'm excited as the prospect of the school and hope it works. There's example after example of immersion programs sprouting up and changing the community for the better. Miner can do it too!

Can you point to example after example of DCPS immersion programs which have changed a community for the better?

You could use some reading comprehension help. Poster didn't say DCPS. Nonetheless, here's an article about St. Louis: www.nationaljournal.com/.../how-a-public-chinese-immersion-school-is- desegregating-st-louis-20140909

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gosh. Such a negative spin on what would be a wonderful program. You can't win for losing in this city. And I bet all of the supposed homeless advocates don't have children at Miner or live in the community. I hope the organizers will ignore them and their irrelevant thoughts and go full steam ahead. There's always this assumption that we need to coddle "the poors" and they couldn't possibly want an innovative immersion program. It's pretty condescending. I'm just lucky we're at a wonderful immersion school- with a large cohort of FARMs children who are amazing and are thriving very well. You almost have to wonder if there isn't some hidden agendy from naysayers. Perhaps they want slots for themselves and so they'd rather to pretend to care about poor children when really they want immersion for themselves.

If you want to find out what the homeless families who send their kids to Miner would like, host a meeting at the homeless shelter, or at least hand out fliers there. Miner will also have a homeless outreach coordinator who can tell parents about these meetings. I'm not homeless and can't speak for them. I'm sure some families would be interested in Mandarin, some might like dual language but prefer Spanish/French/something else, and some would have questions or concerns.

And consider the possibility that there are different types of families getting FARMs (native English speakers vs. immigrants speaking the target language of your immersion school; a mom and two kids living on under $500 a month in TANF vs. the $36,000 that would still qualify for reduced-price meals; at DC General vs. in an apartment) and different types of schools (charter or PK where the kids had to win a lottery vs. neighborhood schools that have to take everyone).

You're probably a white person who thinks you know what's best for black people. Um, sorry. You're not that important! Again, OP. Please ignore the loud uneducation peanut gallery and move forward. People will do anything and say anything to prevent innovation for black and brown people. I'm excited as the prospect of the school and hope it works. There's example after example of immersion programs sprouting up and changing the community for the better. Miner can do it too!

I don't care what race you are. If you come to the school in the middle of the year and everyone's speaking Mandarin for part of the day, you're going to be lost. And if you leave the school and go somewhere else where they didn't spend half their time learning Chinese, it's going to be harder to catch up. Maybe there are a lot of families who are interested in it anyway. But the only way to find out is to ask them.

Well, we care about what race you are- a white person masquerading as an avenger of the lost black and brown people of the world. Do us a favor, leave us alone. We don't need you deciding what's best for us. And your sociology degree and stint in the Peace Corps doesn't matter either. Go back to Seattle or Oregon and pntificate over there.