Thread: Afraid 2 listen;hear such things daily in job;ESL instructor

Listening to the audio would add to the frustration I feel daily in my position as an ESL instructor to adults in L.A. County. I'm not a bigot; my children's paternal grandmother is hispanic. I really care about my students, even the majority who are illegal. But I can't afford to support them with Social Security, welfare, and education benefits that I myself won't qualify for when I retire in a few years, having a state teacher's pension. It's the comments I get from some of the young guys in my evening class that raises my stroke risk. Occasionally someone will say during a unit on naturalization that they love Mexico and will never become U.S. citizens, and those who were too afraid to voice that opinion will nod. Mind you, those folks aren't the majority, but it validates a concern I've had since starting this job three years ago: a sizable percentage of our adult students from Latin America don't respect our laws and expect to receive benefits because they're entitled. It's an outrage!

One teacher told me that her students opened up and told her that in Mexico it's expected that kids will head north at age 17. One of my hispanic students, a senior citizen from El Salvador, gave one of my Chinese students advice on how to get free health care at the County health clinic next door. This is a young woman who wears a $5,300 diamond on her finger and drives a Mercedes. When I caught what I feared was SARS two years ago (a very sick student returned from China very ill, went home, and three of us came down with a really bad flu- the principal had pneumonia, I had bronchitis that almost got me, and the counselor ended up in the ER unable to breathe). The County clinic refused me treatment because I'm employed- never mind that I didn't have sick pay coming in and I caught the disease from my students. The students get free health care when they lie and say they have no assets. Legal citizens have to take out loans to pay co-payments and bill when we get sick with illnesses brought here by immigrants, many illegal.

The topping on this ugly cake was when an administrator of school was guiding my students through a tour of the Business Dept. of our vocational education area two weeks ago. He conducted the whole tour in Spanish. After watching my Asian students look confused for a few minutes, I comented that not all our students speak Spanish. He looked at me like I was from Mars, spoke in English for a few minutes, then reverted to Spanish. How incredibly rude! He was treating the illegal alien students with more respect than the Asian students who bothered to abide by immigration laws and get proper documents. Arghhh.....

Good luck in your endeavors.

Sincerely,
Meredith Alleruzzo

Welcome Meredith.

People need to hear stories like yours and share them with others.

William

meredit,
welcome to ALIPAC, great to have you here with us. Thats an eye opening post. Please keep us posted on how it is going with the students. By all means be careful.

Finally, a teacher! And an ESL teacher at that! Welcome, Meredith! I've been wondering why I don't hear any teachers speaking out.

I heard tonight on the news that New Mexico is going to recruit and hire some 1500 (?) new teachers from Mexico to come and teach in NM schools. I guess we should add teaching to the list of jobs Americans won't do. The news story made it sound more like Americans are not capable of doing the job. Is there that much of a shortage of bi-lingual teachers here?

I always thought No Child Left Behind was really about not leaving any Hispanic child behind. No one seriously cares about American black or white children or legal Asian, African or Russian children.

Why aren't more teachers complaining?

Thanks again for your honesty and willingness to share your stories.

So, Clintonite Gov. Bill -let the Chinese steal our secrets while on my watch - Richardson is enabling the invaders by hiring Mexican nationals instead of American teachers?? This is an absolute outrage. God bless the MMP for stopping the flow temporarily at AZ. Maybe the hundreds of thousands who will cross the border, will do it to NM.

Can the American people, who sit on their sofas living vicariously via all of the "reality" shows, not see what is happening?? For the state of New Mexico to do something like this flies in the face of a sovereign America. They should just go ahead and remove the word NEW from the state's letterhead and official documentation.

Viva La Raza, viva Aztlan, viva Jorge Bush ( my rear end )

Had enough yet?

Welcome meredit!

It's good to hear from a teacher, I have herd a lot of stories and each one makes me want to scream. I hope more teachers speak out also.
It makes me sick to know how much they detest us while wanting all of the benefits of living in this great country, more benefits than the average American can receive.

I read about them bringing bi-lingual teachers into New Mexico, but then I knew it was coming. Hearing it was a part of NAFTA that was going to be phased in.
It's not supposed to be this way. I still get teary eyed when I see the legal immigrants getting sworn in, waving their little flags.

To think that they know they are ruining this country and just letting it continue.

Well I hope we can stick together and do something about it.

More people have to get the word out that something can be done.