Well, well, well.

The gloom and doom predictions of those who blindly defend bilingual education as a means of teaching English have been exposed as baseless.

Just the reverse has happened, at least if what the Sunday New York Times (8/20) reports is accurate. And the fact that the New York Times reported it is almost as big as the story itself. Most of the liberal print media would spike this story. In fact, if you’re reading it now, credit the bravery of your local op-ed editor. There are segments of the educational community that would prefer you not have this information.

The Times discovered that what traditionalists have been saying for a hundred years about new language acquisition turns out to be right–immersion works.

Test scores in California districts that are adhering to Prop 227 are dramatically higher than those who do not. Ken Noonan, founder of the California Association of Bilingual Educators, had what the Times termed a “religious conversion” when he discovered that students in his own district were learning the language in nine months, contrary to the malarkey that it takes seven years for an immigrant child to acquire English mastery.

Of course, hundreds of thousands of immigrants have learned English through immersion since the Civil War, a fact which the National Association of Bilingual Educators seem to have overlooked in their quest to preserve their fiefdoms. And, truth be told, many immigrants continue to to learn English that way. Most are not, however, Hispanics. European and Asian immigrants seem to have no need for bilingual education.

Indeed, the most resistance to the immersion solution comes from those who claim to represent Hispanics, despite mountains of research that says Hispanics are clearly as capable of learning English as easily any other ethnic group. Their so-called “spokesmen” disagree. What an insult to those of Hispanic descent!

The bottom line is this: Immersion works. California has proven it, even to die-hard guys like Ken Noonan who swore that Hispanic kids would not attend school if Bilingual education were not available. Not only are they attending, they’re succeeding–and ecstatic about it.

The question in New Jersey now is “Are there any legislators, superintendents and Board of Education members with the courage to make the move that will benefit thousands of limited English proficient kids? Or will they spout politically correct platitudes before they bury their heads in the sand and doom kids of Hispanic descent to careers as dishwashers and busboys rather than doctors and lawyers?

Better yet, let our elected representatives ask these tough questions. Because the solution seems to have been what we “reactionaries” have been saying for a long time. The best way to learn a language is not by being taught in some other language 80 percent of the time. It’s by immersion in the language of the land you have chosen to call home.

Mr. Epps served on the Perth Amboy Board of Education for nine years. Despite being a frequent and outspoken critic of the Bilingual Education program he was elected to three terms before retiring from service.



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