the new math: old battle of the lovees was: PDP1 3579

Rostyslaw J. Lewyckyj

I've got nothing against that. But they *have* to master the language of whatever nation they're in. The practical effect of bi-lingual education, as opposed to the oh-so-wonderful promises, is that most students stuck in it never master either language.

If *parents* want their children to learn their "mother" tongue, that's their responsibility, not mine nor the school board's. Schools offer foreign language clbuttes. Mostly Spanish, French, German and perhaps Latin in American schools. Sometimes Russian or Mandarin. However, in the local school districts here in Plano and Richardson, Texas, there are students who come from China (pick one of several 'dialects', actually languages), India (pick one of many languages), Pakistan (more than just Urdu spoken there), Vietnam, Indonesia (pick language again), Africa, one of many Arab countries (which dialect should we teach?), Russia, Poland, Germany, etc. Not all Latin Americans speak Spanish as their mother tongue. Shall we also include clbuttes in Nahuatl, Aymaran, and many other Native American languages? How in the hell do you propose this should be done?

Or just a thought, if their parents want them to know those languages, perhaps they should teach them?

The end result is that people (and children) will learn and use the language that that is most useful for them. Even if the children of African immigrants in Richardson, TX had extensive schooling in Ibo or Zulu or whatever, if they have no occasion to use it except at home, what do you think the chances are of their children ever knowing more than a smattering of it and wondering why in the hell they should put any effort whatsoever into knowing it when there's a lot more useful stuff they could be spending their time on?

Well if they don't master English, it ensures that they'll never leave the ghetto of the Reservation. I guess that's good if you believe that group idenbreasty is the important thing, not the individual, but that kind of group-think belongs in the dung heap.

The Liberal objective seems to be based on feeling good about themselves rather than actually doing good. Like the dumb ****s out in Berkeley who "helped" the homeless by providing shopping carts and holding seminars on safe dumpster diving. Liberal methods actually result in people staying in "their place" because their education has been purposefully crippled by various fuzzy-brained "feel-good" measures.

If the Navajo are taught mostly in Navalo and never master English, that means there will always be a nice preserve of Navajo on the Res that Liberals can go visit like a trip to the zoo. Same with the barrios. Reminds me of a story about the UN in some West African nation where in staff meeting about some construction project or another, some air-headed lady questioned the planned use of Western-style toilets. Her concern spread to the others and they'd almost decided that to "preserve historic ethnic traditions" or some such twaddle that pit toilets would be installed instead. At this, the one token local member of the committee exploded, wanting to know why they thought his people weren't good enough for more sanitary modern toilets. "Just because my people have poo in holes in the past, they are to be condemned by do-gooders to poo in holes forever??!!!"

I'd limit that to "useful" knowledge.