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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Just to comment on what an after school immersion or charter would offer that DSW doesn't: opportunity for English speaking kids.

If you look at threads in the private school forum you will see hostility toward families enrolling children who are not fluent or who do not have a German speaking parent. DSW is not an immersion school designed to teach English speakers German. It is a school for German children who happen to be in America. I know this because I wanted to send my son, researched the matter heavily, visited, and spoke with families. The Portland school is an immersion/dual language program that embraces both American and German families. It is different. [b]DSW parents view English only children the same way that high SES families view ESL kids in a classroom, as a weight that is holding their child back[/b]. Many of them will be returning to Germany. In the end I decided to do the Saturday school and summer immersion camp at Concordia Language Villages. http://www.concordialanguagevillages.org/youth-languages/german-language-village[/quote]

This is a loaded statement and you ought to be careful when throwing it around. They may "object," like non-ESL parents object to the presence of ESL students, because the needs of the children are very different and there does not exist a viable means of providing each group what they need (and deserve) within the same classroom. Someone necessarily loses. [/quote]

DSW parent here.  Yes, we "object" because it drags the entire class down when a child cannot speak the language.  It is not an immersion school, it is a German school.  I don't need my 6th grader returning to Germany with below grade level skills after 3 yrs there because half the class speaks/reads/writes at a 3rd grade level.  That woud be a problem, and that's why many parents object to non-native speakers attending the school.  There is no segregation of classes based on skill level, if there were, there likely would be less objection.  But that would raise other issues.[/quote]

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