Picture this: it’s your first day of
kindergarten. You may have just moved to a new neighborhood, one that is middle
class compared to the block you used to live on. You are excited to meet new
friends and learn all about new subjects at school…there’s just one problem.
You don’t speak English.
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A classroom depicts
diversity in their students’ languages.
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This scenario happens all too often
nationally in our public schools. Teachers are not equipped to teach or
understand Spanish, so the children that come into class with this perceived
“deficit” are pushed to the wayside. They are labeled incompetent, delayed, and
even learning disabled. They are pushed further and further down the ranks of
the educational class level hierarchy, until they are forced to be in class
levels inappropriate to their skills, if only given the right chance. It is
imperative that these discriminatory situations be abolished, but for that to
happen one must educate themselves on the wrongs of our education system.
In her article in The Atlantic, Melinda D. Anderson states
that "one in four school children ages 5 to 17 speak a language
other than English at home.” This striking statistic should be
enough to jolt those in the education system to reevaluate the direction that
our schools are taking to educate students who are not from a purely American
background, and who do not speak the same language as their born-and-bred
American classmates. Another issue regarding ELL students is the debate over whether
it is more important for those who are considered ELLs to leave their culture behind and adopt the American way
of life, or whether it should be their school’s priority to make them feel
accepted in what may be foreign territory to them. To create even more
difficulty for these students, the newly enacted Common Core Standards are holding all students to more
difficult and rigorous standards, but now English Language Learners have
another hurdle to clear. The critical thinking and vocabulary demands
on students under these standards are more intense than ever, pushing students
who may not be proficient in English into a deeper rut when trying to achieve
in school using their second language. On the elementary level, it is
concerning to come to terms with the fact that these students simply are not
getting the correct pedagogical education that they need to succeed in the
future. The controversial nature of these tests determining the futures of
English language proficient students is one which is in the forefront, while
struggling ELLs are left to add another reason to their list of why they will
potentially not attend their dream college or be destined to follow the career
paths of their immigrant parents because the American school system dictated to
them that once again, they were not good enough. Closing the achievement gap
for these students will be one of the most important issues for public school
officials to grapple with in the future of standardized testing and curriculum
shifts to come.
American public schools must learn
the origin of the detriment of their English Language Learners is not to stifle
their original language, but to allow it to thrive and perpetuate learning. Made
example by Anderson through research on public schools in California, the move toward not singularly
teaching students in English has shown benefits for the English Language
Learner population. By interweaving the cultures of these exceptional learners,
the classroom will reap the benefits of multicultural learning and closing the
learning and cultural representation gap for all students. By doing this, we
can exemplify the exclamation made in the image above, and support bilingual
classrooms for the betterment of all students.
