Saturday, January 10, 2009

Bilingual language to be taught at El Camino del Rio elementary school in Eugene

The Register Guard--

On Wednesday, the Eugene school board cleared the way for ordering new books and training its staff at El Camino del Rio or to the rest of us known as River Road elementary school in Eugene.

The program would effect all three kindergarten classes and two of the three 1st grade classes. The immersion program which has been a long time coming according to Principal Paco Furlan, will offer instructions in both languages [English and Spanish] with core subjects. Half the day being taught in Spanish and the other have being taught in English.

The goal according to Furlan, is to roll out one more grade level at a time in subsequent years until the program is statewide.

I have several problems with this… First in being, that English is the primary language still in the United States and if it wasn't for the huge influx of the illegal aliens primarily Spanish speaking, this would not even be an issue.

Secondly, if I wanted my child to learn a second language… (which I have no problems with) I want it to be a language of my or my child's choice.

Thirdly, is this another sign of things to come? I mean, the State Of Oregon already pays 5% more if you speak Spanish and they do not to my knowledge at least pay anymore if you are bilingual in Vietnamese, Japanese, etc.

So where does it end? How many jobs have you been qualified for in Oregon but are unable to obtain because you do not speak Spanish? I'm seeing more and more with no signs of it slowing down.

1 comment:

Bobkatt said...

I like the following quote:"Furlan said he doesn’t anticipate much additional cost for River Road, beyond the up-front purchases of additional curriculum and staff training." Oh yes and also the cost of busing to either school within the two attendance areas. Of course if we didn't perpetuate this unnecessary crap the cost would be zero. With logic like this it's not hard to see why we have a projected shortfall of $7.7 million next year.
The option of busing illegals back to where they came from was not discussed.