Reply to Entering Oyster as Spanish-dominant -- Spanish proficiency test?

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[quote=Anonymous]This is so very unfortunate. That is has come to this. :(

I have read pages of this post and have been tempted many times to respond. I finally had to on this last post.

We are an English and Spanish speaking, white/Northern European race, Irish/Mexican ancestry, ethincity Latino/Anglo, blah blah blah out of bounds Oyster family. My daughter got a pre-K spot as a native Spanish SPEAKER, not because she was "Latino" (she is also so"white" she is almost translucent). She took the test, in Spanish. We did not. There was no issue on who our family was/was not, our income, race, ethnicity......  Just, she spoke Spanish.

I'm sad to hear that you would think families at Oyster would have been mean to you if you had taken the spot for your child. Of course they would not. Oyster is a wonderful place, with lovely families of all races, ethnic backgrounds, SES - the Spanish and English language falls (I want to say) pretty evenly actoss all spectrums. (I'm sure your decision was best for your family, though and hope it's all good. :) No one would care (or should care...and if they do they would be an anomaly - a BAD one) how your child came to speak Spanish.

I just feel like so much of this bad blood is coming from folks who don't know and are assuming so many things. Gosh - it's like nothing people are saying about Oyster is true. Crazy and incredible!

Oh well, I uses that's just how this places works. This is my first post. :)

quote=Anonymous]We received a spot at Oyster last year through the OOB spanish dominant lottery. After reading this post, I am really glad we didn't take it!

DC is spanish dominant because DH and I have spoken to him only in Spanish since birth. This has been a great effort on my part because I am a non-native speaker of Spanish. While I am pretty fluent, it would nonetheless be easier to speak to DC in English. DH is from South America and therefore speaks his native language with DC.  When DC was born, we decided that we would prefer as a family to speak one language at home, rather than constantly have conversations in two languages, with one parents speaking English and the other speaking Spanish. So, we had to choose either DHs native language of Spanish or my native language of English. We chose Spanish so that DC could become bilingual. DH and I still speak English together when DC is not around. DC also has been with mostly (although not exclusively) Spanish speaking nannies/sitters when are not with him.

At 4.5, DC is still Spanish dominant but his english is catching up quickly. How do I know he is Spanish dominant? He understands more complicated books in Spanish, asks in Spanish how to say things in english, and wakes up speaking Spanish first thing in the morning. If I want to be sure he understands something, I know I have to say it in spanish. However,I am not certain that at 6 or 7, he will still be spanish dominant since the english environment is so strong in the US. Once that happens, I may switch to English with him as it is harder and harder to explain the more complex thing we discuss in my non native language.

So, how would the Oyster parents have treated us if we had attended on a coveted OOB Spanish dominant slot? DC is so white that he is almost translucent  - DH and I have similar coloring. We are not latino from any racial or ethnic indication that is obvious to the outside observer. I am clearly Anglo (WASP family) and would have done all dropoffs and pickups at Oyster. Would I have gotten nasty looks for speaking to my child in spanish (even though that is what he prefers)? If I had instead spoken to him in English as a result of being self-conscious (which I do sometimes), would I have been called a liar and a cheat? [/quote][/quote]

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