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

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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=warrenox][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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.[/quote]
I love you! This is Tyler- and the push behind dual language options at schools. [/quote]

Yes. God forbid we do something to [b]attract middle or upper class people to their neighborhood school.[/b] The horror. [/quote]

In the school but away from the poors. You want the segregation. The current  curriculum at Miner and teachers aren't bad actually. What you don't want is to be with the very at risk kids, I get it. But the mandarin idea at Miner just sounds like a way to keep your snowflakes in bubble wrap. The links the PP provided support immersion but not true integration of dual-language programs. I love how PS3 and younger parents have it all figured out. Really, go check out Tyler in the upper grades. Not your utopia by any stretch. The entire idea is daft.
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No, you're racist and elitist.  Yes, white IB kids should go to Miner. They should NOT GET a "separate school" within the damn school! They're not better than the other children!!!  [/quote]

http://www.greatschools.org/washington-dc/washington/4-Miner-Elementary-School/

Please tell me how the curriculum at Miner is succeeding again...   What's your solution to increase the student population and keep the school from actually closing for lack of enrollment?

People who have a way to give their kids a better start, be they white, black, asian, hispanic, or purple, will take that option.  You owe that to your kids.

Why go to the assumption that parent's don't want their child around at-risk kids?  Why not make the logical leap that parents want a quality education for their child?

And guess what?  Parent's of PK3 aren't stupid and naive as you suppose above.  I could throw that assumption back at you and say that parents of older children don't have anything figured out because their kid is in a failing school.

I'll not accuse you of being daft or racist, or an elitist as you have done to others, but I would suggest you look in the mirror and ask yourself if assuming others have nefarious plans is helping you achieve your goals and if that's the attitude you would want to pass on to your children.

Throwing accusations around and screaming racism isn't helping anyone's cause, including your own.  Rationally having a discussion and even providing examples of your own experience without demonizing anyone so as to further the discussion would help all of us.

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Adding Mandarin (or any language immersion program) does not improve the base curriculum at the school.  Obviously I agree that they need improvements there.  But I fundamentally disagree that a language immersion program will help. This isn't theoretical. These types of programs have been implemented elsewhere in DCPS.  AGAIN, see Tyler. Adding the language immersion has not done ANYTHING to help the curriculum of the traditional program. Children in the traditional program receive a markedly worse education than those in the Spanish Immersion program. And as a PP mentioned, at Miner, there is a sizeable transient population.  They aren't going to be able to jump into an immersion program, so they're stuck back in the regular program, WHICH WILL SEE NO IMPROVEMENT AT ALL.  [/quote]

No one said "white kids are better" but the fact is the high SES kids are often two grades ahead of their counterparts in the classroom DCPS could solve this with a test in gifted program so people wouldn't have to find ways to get a challenging education for their kids. I think Mandarin at Miner is ridiculous personally has there will be no way for low income families to fully support their kids and with the high number of homeless kids they have serious other learning and social needs to be met.  If the kids are unable to read in English is starting Mandarin feasbile. At least make is Spanish which is much more useful.    So yes. by third grade many parents do want their kids "away from the poors" but not because they are poor but becuse they can longer ignore the achievement gap in the classroom. And here is a newsflash, the best teachers CANNOT differentiate that much in the classroom. The teaching will always be geared to helping the slowest kids. So the "snowflakes" that every seems to hate are sitting there doing pointless work or tutoring classmates.    Its just a fact.  [/quote]

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