Word: spanishness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Room A-2, a bilingual class, 30 first-graders, all Latinos, belt out their favorite song, El Rancho Grande. In the book corner: Los Tres Cochinitos--The Three Little Pigs. On the wall: the seasons, the months, the days, in both Spanish and English. In a mock interview, teacher Marina Williams asks Fabiola, a gap-toothed charmer, "Senora Presidente, what should children do in school?" Fabiola shoots back, "Aprender ingles!"--learn English. But one small boy has another idea: "Bailar!"--dance. The teacher takes the hint, winding up the day with a session of "la quebradita," a sort of Mexican...
...exploding into one of the nation's most divisive political issues, fueled, on one hand, by a backlash against immigration and affirmative action and, on the other, by the failures and ideological strictures of some existing bilingual programs. Last fall, for example, when Westminster officials pushed teachers to take Spanish and Vietnamese classes or face a transfer, the teachers' union organized a takeover of the school board, voting in three new members who have vowed to phase out bilingual classes such as Marina Williams'. "It is unconstitutional to force American citizens to learn a foreign language in order to keep...
...Hispanic pork packers, principal Becky Furlong fears that federal budget cuts will wipe out her bilingual kindergarten. Meanwhile, at the elementary school in De Queen, Arkansas, principal Cindy Hale has no plans to teach the Latino children of local poultry workers--now a quarter of her students--in Spanish. "The quicker they adapt to speaking English, the better off they are," she says...
...full circle as a group of Brooklyn parents filed suit against the New York State commissioner of education, claiming that tens of thousands of children are "languishing" in poorly run bilingual programs. The suit charges that American-born children with Latino surnames and low test scores are consigned to Spanish-language classes even if their dominant language is English. Fearful of losing federal and state bilingual funds, schools allegedly pressure children to remain in bilingual classes far longer than necessary. "I missed out on three years of work," says 13-year-old Ariel Pena, who tried unsuccessfully...
...York City schools have experienced a 49% increase in non-English-speaking immigrants in six years. Besides Spanish, classes are now taught in Chinese, Haitian Creole, Russian, Korean, Arabic, Vietnamese, Polish, Bengali and French. A few schools offer a full program in the student's native language, but most give at best an hour of native-language assistance, along with an hour of instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL). At Daniel Carter Beard Junior High in the borough of Queens, teacher Michael Cao faces a daunting task. His seventh-graders, most of whom speak little or no English...