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Derek's Story

Kerry Riffel, Lansdale, PA
Thursday, June 4, 1998

My husband and I were watching the "Today" show a few days ago when they were debating Proposition 227. We had no idea that this was taking place in California but are extremely happy that the proposal passed. My husband was married to a Mexican woman and they now have a nine year old boy, Derek. For eight years, Derek has lived in San Diego with his mother who speaks only Spanish in the home. My husband has always done his share to take care of Derek and provide him with the things all little boys need to grow and flourish. We became very distressed last year when Derek, in third grade at a "bilingual" public school in San Diego, could not yet read, write or barely speak English. It was plainly obvious that this bilingual school was teaching only in Spanish. After months of discussion, Derek's mother decided to send him to Pennsylvania to live with us for one school year so we could help him learn English.

We enrolled Derek into fourth grade in the public school system where we live. To say Derek struggled is an understatement. He went through everything from depression, resentment, anger, frustration and a strong lack of self-confidence. Fortunately, he had a teacher and an ESL tutor willing to help him every step of the way and three parents unwilling to give up on him. We are happy to see him now flourishing in the English language. He is reading and comprehending English at or above grade level, testing above his peers in many areas, all in nine months. Our fear now is sending him back to San Diego. We have little confidence in the school system there to continue teaching him in English and we are afraid that all the work we have done this year will be lost.

From our story, it is plain to see that teaching these children English is not as difficult as the opponents would make it seem. The bilingual system only hurts the children and does absolutely nothing to prepare them for further education. At the age of nine, Derek wants to be either a NBA basketball star, a chemist, a doctor or an artist. All of those things (with the exception of the basketball star!) will be very difficult for him if he does not continue to learn in English. We want him to be able to be whatever he wants, but he can not do that if the schools in California continue with bilingual education.