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Sink or swim Marian Traughber
San Jose Mercury News (Letters)
WHILE I was living in the small town of Casper, Wyo., in the early '80s, a family from Taiwan, with three young boys, moved there. The father had been in this country for several years prior to the arrival of the wife and children, so he did speak some English. As you might suspect, there was no teacher in the Casper school system able to communicate with, let alone teach, these children in their native language. Consequently, there was no choice other than to enter them into English classrooms. Within a year or less, the boys were proficient in English and reluctant to speak their own language at home. They are young adults now and all successful students in prestigious American colleges. The current bilingual education issue in California has nothing to do with success, but everything to do with money. -- Marian Traughber, Santa Cruz |