WHAT NEXT?
When a school system indicates that about one-third of the enrollment in the lower grades of the system is of foreign backgrounds, what, then, is the next logical step needed to be undertaken by that system's officials?
This is a special problem. Not only is it "real" and something we must face up to, but it demands new and wider assessments of our our social consciousness, as well. It is challenging in new way for many people. It is not fabricated so we can have something to write and to talk about. It is a problem which the community must face and it will call for some innovative thinking, planning and management along the way. Action is called for now. Prompt attention to this sudden, sharply increased need is imperative.
A check of background facts shows that the community has actually imported around three thousand or more adults workers in the past year. It has been done to meet local employment openings, primarily in the areas poultry industry, and many of these immigrants either have families or relatives have joined them here. Others have been brought into the United States by church and civic groups concerned with pressing humanitarian problems around the world. It is possible that some many well be in the country without legal authorization, but the truth is they are here and welcomed by large segments of our social order it is unlikely they will be expelled en maze. One can safely say that because such token deportation efforts as are intermittently undertaken have proved to be dismal at best.
It is a matter of increasing urgency for us to become concerned with the problem as it exists today and as it may well become even more complex in the near future. We need to deal with facts, too, rather than convenient theory which can often be contrived to smooth things over for a time. This is a problem which is not going to go away of itself.
An initial, and primary concern, must be about languages. These children are from homes in our area where the total of commonly used household language by parents and relatives adds up to an impressive thirty-eight different – including some dialect variations which might be puzzling to a small child.
It is apparent at once that this as a great challenge in itself. It is not just a matter of providing some extra Spanish-English studies along the way, for instance, but a complete needs for far more than what may be considered “adequate” by many. If the education of these new children - and our own – to be be successful, then there must also be a comparable effort made in adult education as well. To provided an English-speaking atmosphere for a child by day and hen send him or her home where the native tongue is the sole means of communication can only intensify existing difficulties.
At escape for far too many of us is to see to it that our church, or some church in the area, offers services in Spanish or Korean or whatever language might be needed, at least once a week. Commendable as that project may seem to be, it often does more harm than good by increasing the need for temporary crutches by the child attempting to more forward in his new world on his own. It also isolates the adults from community life and citizenship associations, which is not good for the adult or the child. Merely added the words “Se habla Espanoll” to a firm's radio or TV spots, or in printed material, may increase local business with that segment of the strangers among us for the moment, but, in the long term, it can prove to be crippling.
We are currently ignoring the great opportunity we have to teach our own children foreign languages and culture. Our youngsters can learn foreign tongues from their peers.. from children of heir own age who are also eager to share and to teach as well as to learn if given he chance to do so. What an opportunity we have? This is something which needs new, adult, and strong innovative leadership urgently.
A.L.M. February 26. 2003 [c708wds]
