English-only drive worries educators
Monica Mendoza
Hank Oyama's eyes say more than he is willing to. It's been 33 years since a study he helped write on the topic of bilingual education prompted massive changes in the education of Arizona children whose first language is not English. Soon Oyama could see a shift back to English-only immersion programs with a one-year time limit. Those are the teaching techniques he, along with other Tucsonans, rallied against in the late 1960s. ``I'm worried,'' Oyama said, diverting his eyes in an interview Monday, the eve of English for the Children Arizona announcing a petition drive for an initiative that would dismantle bilingual education programs. ``But I feel it's a challenge,'' the 73-year-old said. ``I don't see it as a foregone conclusion. I'm not sounding the death knell.'' Bilingual education teaches students core subjects in their native language, gradually increasing the English portion of their instruction as they master their second language. The English for the Children Arizona initiative calls for teaching children entirely in English through yearlong immersion programs; its proponents say children learn most quickly and effectively that way. The proposal is hauntingly familiar to Tucson bilingual educator Leonard Basurto. He calls himself a ``survivor'' of the immersion program known as 1-C - the ``Americanization Program'' Tucson Unified School District used from 1920 to 1965. In his Tucson grade school, Spanish-speaking children were placed in a one-year total English immersion class before going to first grade. If they spoke their native tongue they got taps on the cheeks or were publicly humiliated, he said. Children responded to English immersion by giving up, said Adalberto Guerrero, who worked with Oyama on the study, ``The Invisible Minority'' - a look at 40 schools in the Southwest. ``You cannot learn if you don't understand the language being spoken,'' said Guerrero, who attended a 1-C class in Bisbee. ``I was one of 30 students in an immersion class,'' he said. ``Most didn't even complete the eighth grade. I know of two that graduated high school.'' Today, about 7,000 TUSD students are enrolled in bilingual education classes, Basurto said. And they can stay in the program as long as they wish, space permitting. Bilingual education may change whether the initiative is successful or not. One bill in the Arizona Legislature would limit bilingual education to three years; another would strengthen the program by increasing its funding. And Lisa Graham Keegan, state superintendent of public instruction, wants the Department of Education to make changes in the bilingual education program this year in hopes of fending off a statewide vote. She favors a limit on the number of years a child can spend in bilingual classes, but has not decided what other changes are necessary. Basurto takes offense to Keegan's characterization that children are ``languishing'' in bilingual education programs. There should be no limit on the amount of time children spend in bilingual education because all children learn differently, he said. Guerrero, a retired Pueblo High School teacher, said the discussion on bilingual education is going the wrong way. Educators should be demanding that bilingual education programs be expanded from K-12 to college, he said. Basurto said a Department of Education report released last year on the status of language programs lumps all limited English-speaking children into one category. Often quoted from the report is that only one-eighth of the children are successfully being transferred from bilingual education to regular education classes. The claim in misleading, Oyama said. The report reveals that children in bilingual programs, who account for 27 percent of the children in some type of language acquisition program, do better than children in English as a Second Language programs, he said. ``What is being labeled as a failure in bilingual education is referring to children who are not in bilingual programs,'' Oyama said. Part of the problem is the lack of tracking. Both sides acknowledge that. School officials say a mobile community means they don't know how many children in bilingual education programs graduate and cannot say to what degree children master both languages. Basurto said the old English immersion programs pushed Hispanics out the door. TUSD's graduation rate among Hispanics from 1919 to 1967 was 40 percent. Today it's 87 percent, he said. Oyama, who is retired from Pima Community College, where he headed the bilingual education department, said he has never been one to give up easily. He plans to testify at the Legislature. He will attend the last meeting Keegan will host on bilingual education this month before making her decision. He plans to tell everyone he knows his experience with bilingual education. He wants to make them care, he said. ``People are not aware of the successes of bilingual education when the programs are funded adequately,'' Oyama said. ``This is a wake-up call to all Arizonans and something they need to become more deeply informed and do serious research - not just listen to the rhetoric.'' |