bilingual learning...

I would like to chime in on the issue of bilingual learning. Although I don’t have anything against it, but I do think that there have to be major changes made before being integrated into our school systems. As an immigrant of the United States, I was evaluated upon enrollment of elementary school for possibly having to participate in a program similar to this. But because my native language is Tagalog and not Spanish, had I not passed, I would’ve been placed in a class with students that have learning disabilities. When I was in the Philippines, I went to school on a military base and was taught in English so I had no problem. Unfortunately, not all immigrant children get that opportunity and do end up in classes with students with disabilities. In my opinion, placing perfectly capable students in remedial classes could stunt their learning. This could also discourage students and give them the impression that they also have learning disabilities rather than a language barrier. The fact that a student isn’t fluent in English is not a mental disability! I’ve also heard of situations where students get held back a grade because of the language issue. Since then, I’ve always had a negative outlook on the bilingual learning programs at schools. I just think that if Spanish speaking students are going to be taken into consideration, so should every other bilingual student. Also, I’ve sat in on a few of those bilingual learning classrooms and have noticed that it’s far from bilingual. It’s more like a Spanish speaking classroom sprinkled with a bit of English. How are students in this program supposed to eventually transition to regular classes if they are enabled to stick to their native tongue? So, I’m all the best interest of students but it should be for all students, and done right.