Reply to Bilingual Kids in Language Immersion ES Programs, Which Programs Have Many & Strive to Attract Them?

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Reply to "Bilingual Kids in Language Immersion ES Programs, Which Programs Have Many & Strive to Attract Them?"

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[quote=Anonymous]Getting back to OP's question, I think it's fair to say that YY is making more of an effort to strive to attract bilingual kids than several years ago, at least according to parents we keep in touch with there. But noting like the Spanish immersion schools, where administrators tend to be native speakers themselves, and most non-ethnic parents have studied the language and know the culture somewhat.

We left YY for our IB school after AY 2011-2012, mainly because my spouse (we speak a dialect at home) was tired of walking on eggshells there as a bilingual immigrant parent. He didn't relate well to the many liberal white and AA parents, or even the highly assimilated Chinese parents, who felt that the school was super inclusive. It wasn't so much that he didn't feel welcome as that he didn't feel comfortable, or able to discuss our situation in the school community without opening himself to accusations of whining and wanting preferential treatment. He wasn't crazy about how parents tended to assume that the Asian kids spoke Chinese at home, when this was seldom the case. Different times when he suggested that the PA push to hire an ethnic, dialect-speaking administrator, he met with such an unpleasant reaction that he came home feeling low. So we bailed with him saying "If we're going to be token Chinese immigrants, let's do it IB and relax." We miss a few things about YY, mainly having a public school teach our children to write Chinese (now we rush off to private MoCo classes), but mostly we are grateful to feel at ease in a school community where we don't have to watch ourselves most the time, taking great care not to seem demanding or entitled.

When PPs say, some parents just aren't going to like any school, you're missing the point. It's not a lot of fun to feel like a token, muzled bilingual in a school teaching your own language and culture.

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