Thursday, June 25, 1998.

I am Puerto Rican, born and raised under a Spanish education system where English was taught as a second language. I wanted to learn English very much because as my father said, "anybody can take from you anything, except what you know."

...In Puerto Rico our native language is Spanish, as it is in almost all Latin America. If I go to live in the U.S. and I want my kids to receive a public education, they should study in English, for it is the language of the the place we chose to live.

In those places where a majority of the students are immigrants... some type of language inmersion programs should be created -- not as a parallel system, but as a transitional one -- specially in the elementary years.

It's funny. There is on the continent a struggle from parents to keep teaching in Spanish to students who need more than anything their English, while here in PR, concerned parents like me are paying private schools to teach our kids in English.

Edgar Berrios