O. Ricardo Pimentel’s Aug. 24 column, “Test scores don’t make case for banning bilingual ed,” presents arguments similar to those of his March 23 column, “If kids don’t learn, more, not less, is the answer.” Both times he quoted college of education professors because, after all, they are the experts.

Unfortunately, as many teachers like me have learned, the theories of those professors may sound good, but do not work. As I have discovered through research outside of the colleges of education, their theories have not been field-tested and contradict what has been proven to work effectively in other countries.

Johns Hopkins University linguists have concrete evidence that the window of opportunity to learn language gradually narrows for children after the age of six. That would account for the astounding rates of progress made by the California children who have been immersed in English in the early grades. Likewise, the French and the German educational systems have met with remarkable success in teaching large numbers of immigrant children by the immersion method.

I would like to convince O. Ricardo Pimentel that bilingual education is wrong for the Latino children. However, the professors of education seem to have him in their corner. Perhaps he will be convinced after Proposition 203 passes and the Arizona immigrant children begin to show gains comparable to those reported in California schools.

Johanna Haver
Phoenix



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