Mar. 18, 2002 - 20:21 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Semaphores

There is much discussion nowadays about dual language education, which is called many different names also with different intent, of course.

There are some who feel that a school should teach English and the ancestral language of the pupil. One other school of thought is, "The heck with 'em, let 'em learn like great grandpa did." And points in between.

Even to me the first philosophy is an impossibility. Now, any school can have darn near as many different ancestral languages as there are pupils (to carry it to the ridiculous extreme). Also if some have their way, it will be taught that way all through their school career. Ending up then with graduates who just don't have the vaguest idea what another graduate is saying.

The second school of thought fails to take into account that great grandpa never did learn English, worked for starvation wages and insisted that his progeny learn English - quickly. I never have been able to figure out the reason for that. Maybe Dad was too tired after a day of hard labor to wash his hands and go to night school, or maybe the taunts sure to have been thrown at him of, "Dummy can't speak English," or other ego destroying actions from others. But the parents made sure their kids learned English rapidly !

Then, in between are the ones who differ on how the help should be rendered and the length of time it should be given.

Simple fool that I am it seems to me that if a kid can't speak English he or she should be in a separate school being taught the same subjects at the same level in their native tongue as well as being taught English until such a time as he or she can understand and speak English. Then being blended into the general population of students.

Longer hours going to that school ? Sure, the kids would be taught the same subjects as other kids along with learning English. Cheaper in the long run for the taxpayers I think than the fol-de-rol teaching and quibbling going on now. It would be less expensive paying teachers in those schools an hour or two of overtime a day than the incredible outlay of the taxpayers money the way it is being spent now, it appears to me.

The incentive for the kids to learn English ? Two extra hours a day to devote to the recreation of their choice. The ability with their newly learned English to mingle in places like the Boys and Girls Clubs, taking part in school organizations like glee clubs. Gee whiz, I fondly dream of a student newly coming from one of the separate schools winning a spelling bee - wouldn't that be a hummer ?

In my limited way, I have worked in a few non-English speaking countries. Even on seeing that I was approachable and friendly, have been more or less waylaid by young people there who spotted me as a round eye and I happily talked with them for hours while they practised speaking and understanding English. From what I have read and heard, the teaching of English in foreign lands is the norm and required.

In those places when I was in the general populace, with difficulty I was able to make my simple wants and needs known to someone who didn't speak my language by hand gesture, eye movements and arm waving and sometimes pointing. When I would board a train after getting across to the ticket seller where I wanted to go. It was a piece of cake then for me to politely show a passenger next to me my ticket (which had the destination on it in their language) then a head nod of understanding and if that persons destination was before mine another passenger would be clued in and finally I would get where I wanted to go.

My main line of thought is that arm waving takes too long, for one thing and in no way substitute for complete communication and understanding. I do strongly feel that kids who come here to school and can't speak English, the first order of procedure is to further their formal education in their language but pushing the learning as rapidly as possible the learning of the language of understanding of the world.

My methods allowed me to get from place to place by the inconvenient use of Semaphore . . . . . . . . . .

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