Thank goodness U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten showed some common sense when he ruled last week that a Wichita, Kan., Catholic school policy requiring students to speak only English did not break any civil rights laws. Three Hispanic families had tried to end this practice at St. Anne's Catholic School on the grounds that Spanish-only students were harassed and ostracized by other students. I remember a time when Hispanic parents insisted that their children speak English...
Multilingualism has increased illiteracy and balkanized communities, but that hasn't stopped proponents from trying to make it mandatory. What part of "this doesn't work" don't they understand?
Can you really argue with the fact that English is the language of success and opportunity in this country? If you argue with this, how do you explain that English is the most common "foreign language" in the world?
que? no speaka ingles.
ReplyDelete> What part of "this doesn't work" don't they understand?
ReplyDeleteWhat really bugs me about rhetorical question like this is that the underlying assumption is stupidity. Assuming stupidity is an expression of either laziness or dishonesty and if you think you stand for what's works and is right it seems to me you have a responsibility to question your own convenient assumptions.
The fact of the matter is that a salient quality of lefties *isn't* stupidity. Micheal Kinsley isn't stupid. Barack Obama isn't stupid. Heck, even Al Gore isn't stupid.
That means that if you're looking for reasons why proponents of multilingualism find the idea attractive it isn't because they're too stupid to see its faults. The author ought to look for a better motivation or forget about delving into motivations.
When growing up in Ohio, my grandmother spoke German in school. But she went to a German speaking private school run by Germans. If the Hispanic immigrants want to start their own school, fine. Otherwise, assimilate.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to note that when LULAC and La Raza were founded, one of the early rules was to promote the learning of English by Hispanic immigrants. Now they come and demand that everything from traffic signs to ballots be in their language. This is ridiculous when you consider that you have to demonstrate knowledge of English to become a citizen or get a drivers' license.
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