Obama's view on “transitional bilingual education”

[Molly]

Do you agree with Obama on this?

Mr. Obama favors “transitional bilingual education” meaning that he believes teachers should transition children to English as quickly as possible, building-up from students’ knowledge of their native language. That is, youngsters should become literate in two languages, not one.

http://esl.about.com/b/2008/10/01/the-bilingual-debate-transitional-classrooms.htm

[Diverhank]

I agree with Obama's position on this one. Not because it will ease the children transitioning into English (children will learn English very quickly regardless of methods) but because the youngsters will become literate in two languages. Americans have big problems when it comes to learning another language so I see nothing wrong in having people fluent in multiple languages.

The article implies that Hispanic kids tend to do less well compared to non-hispanics whites because of the language problems. I don't buy that argument because kids with similar circumstances from other ethnic groups (e.g. Chinese, Vietnamese, India, etc....) do not seem to have the same problems. In many cases, these kids outperform their white counterparts in academic achievements. I think the problems with Hispanic kids not doing well lie elsewhere besides the language barrier, like culture and the facts their parents are dirt poor and not well educated.

[Molly]