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][quote=Anonymous]PP, but if we are going to educate immigrant families (your words) -- let's say we agree on that goal -- then how does that happen? If there is no one who is willing to, literally, speak their language?

I find much to like about YY (and yes, I have a child at the school) -- but there is a stubbornness, a wilfulness in the administration on some of these issues that I find disheartening.

Why can't they tell us how many self-identified Asian students there are the school? Don't tell me it's not relevant or that you don't keep track. That's simply not true. It is totally relevant (in fact and as well as for what it means PR-wise and psychologically) and someone does keep track of the numbers. Why are the barriers always being thrown up?

Why isn't there a single person -- administrator, teacher or parent -- at the open houses that speaks Mandarin, if the core mission of the school, the whole reason it exists and stands apart from all other DCPS or DCPC schools  is to TEACH MANDARIN? Wouldn't you want to highlight your strength, your core mission?

[/quote]

Your point about not being forthright about numbers of self-id'd Asian students at the school is interesting and does seem weird.  Seems like the parent body should just keep pressing for that info, it does seem important, as does actual numbers of already bilingual students.

But I had a different expereince of the open houses.  I went to 2 YY open houses in the last several months.  At one there was a Chinese woman who came in after they'd already started on the presentation.  I assumed she was a prospective parent like everyone else, but I made a point of going up and saying hi and she turned out to be a YY Board member.  I did not converse with her in Mandarin or Cantonese, but by her accent I'd guess she is ethnically Chinese and speaks Chinese.

At the other open house there were a few visibly Asian families (i.e., maybe there were also non-Asian looking people there who spoke Chinese, I'm not going to judge on looks alone).  Most seemed to be prospective parents, but a few seemed to be answering questions during the tours.

So I guess my question to the current parents and others who have gone to open houses is, how are you sure there is no one there representing YY who is ethnically Chinese and speaks Chinese?  In both cases it is true that no one ever introduced them (the Board member came in late), but how do you know that if there were Chinese families there, they weren't there to reach out to them?  And at the other open house, that seemed to be exactly what a couple of the parents were doing to other Asian parents.  But I don't know in that case 100% that they were "representing YY", I just know I heard them answering questions about the school to some non-Asian prospective parents.

So are you really sure YY does not make a point at open houses to have Chinese-speaking resources there?[/quote]

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