Thread: Question for Parents with Kids at ESL Schools

I just wanted to hear some experiences from parents that have to send their kids to ESL schools. At the beginning of the school year, I reported to you guys that my daughter was going into kindergarten, and they had an ESL program for anchor kids in kindergarten. I have seen this ESL class every single day, and I hear them and their teachers talk in Spanish only. All of their projects hanging on the wall are in spanish, while the other classes that have the same project have them in English. I thought that maybe by the end of the year, these anchors would be proficient enough in English to move to the 1st grade. Well here it is at the end of the school year, and I saw the same ESL class, and they STILL don't speak any English. The teacher STILL does not communicate with them in English. Now, since the school has ESL for kindergarten only, these non English speaking anchors will be integrated with English speaking 1st grade classes. I do not want my daughter's education to be dumbed down to accommodate these kids. As I said before, this school was once graded as exemplary for years in a row, is now graded as satisfactory, and it is now obvious why. I am so mad, because I can't afford a private school.

Does anybody else have a similar story?

jshhmr, Oh, do you REALLY want to hear what I have to say about this, it's effects and the public schools?

I have three kids, 26, 15 and 11. The 26 year old went to a school within the Portland City limits, the Reynold district. They had the highest concentration of Hispanic students. BY 8th grade, and without us being called upon, she was failing miserably, although her report card showed average grades, at graduation she had a GPA of 1.8.....They pushed her through to high school anyways, they said they did it with all kids.

She is now in college struggling with math before she can move onto anything else.

When our second entered school, we held him back as we felt at 5 he was really not ready to sit still for any class. We wanted to start him in kindergarten then (his 6th birthday fell right before school started). No, they said put him in first grade. This was the first mistake. So he gets a teacher, who had a majority of Spanish speaking kids, and she spent most of her time with them, and all story times and other issues were in Spanish, despite the fact that this school is in the USA and there were English speaking students in there. She virtually ignored the English speaking students.

By the time he was out of first grade, he knew almost nothing. He struggled all the way through till we pulled him out and home schooled.

Now our third started kindergarten (5 going on 6 in October of that year). When the year was over, she knew five words in Spanish (again, the Spanish speaking kids had precedence in the classroom) and a few letters and nothing about numbers.

We decided to let it go no further and promptly took control along with her brother and did the same, home schooled.

I am glad we did this, sad my kids had to be segregated from other kids, and maybe other activities, but they needed an education and were not getting it. We also found that by high school, supposedly the kids should have a grasp on English, but apparently they continue ESL into high school.

With out son, the second one, I am glad he is not in the high school now, as they have a huge problem with gangs and those gangs selling and doing heroin. This is not an inner city school, no, this high school is out in the country, and we live on the outskirts of the suburbs. What would have made matters worse, is our son is like me, highly outspoken about his beliefs and not afraid of speaking out. This could have been so dangerous for him considering the gang problems.

In fifth grade he would speak out about the Hispanic kids getting out of trouble because the teacher would excuse them and say "it's because of cultural misunderstandings" and then for the same offenses, the American kids (not just white ones) would get the virtual "whip" for their offenses. So he spoke out to the principal who promptly took the teacher aside and chastised her for letting the Hispanic kids off the hook while she punished the others.

After this, he was her whipping boy for everything. To make matters worse, she decided that she would "report" us to the educational service district, saying he was "special needs" and we were refusing him help. All the while, he was behind and we were begging to get him some tutoring, but she kept telling us there were no Title1 programs for that district.

We knew this political pull and indoctrination would get worse, and knew that we would be considered "combatants" (if you will humor the wording) and would have a battle on our hands constantly with them. We chose to take them both out and make sure they finally received the education they needed.

Long story, I know. I hope this helps you figure out how you want to approach the schools. I can say this. Watch them carefully with your child. Don't let them get out of hand, they work for you and your child. We chose the path we are on for ourselves, I do not suggest it for all, if anything look into private school scholarships or charter schools if the public school does not work out.

Be vigilant about your childs education.

Don't the schools have to show progress in their ESL program? If the kids are not learning English, the program is a failure. Is this information made public? If not, why not? The school has a responsibility to taxpayers and students. If it cannot deliver results something must be done.

Here ins Oregon we had a vote recently from an initiative to end ESL and they said it had been shown the programs were a failure, were not working and should be stopped.

As an example of learning English, I will tell you this story. My husbands mother came here to the U.S. with her family, from Germany in 1932, she was six years old. They were immediately dropped into school, and by second grade as completely proficient in English. This was when they simply "immersed" the kids and they would learn from being there and being with other children.

I was in school with a girl who had been adopted from Korea, and she too was put in with us right away, this was in 7th grade and by the end of the school year, she was speaking and understanding English with ease.

Originally Posted by AE

Here ins Oregon we had a vote recently from an initiative to end ESL and they said it had been shown the programs were a failure, were not working and should be stopped.

As an example of learning English, I will tell you this story. My husbands mother came here to the U.S. with her family, from Germany in 1932, she was six years old. They were immediately dropped into school, and by second grade as completely proficient in English. This was when they simply "immersed" the kids and they would learn from being there and being with other children.

I was in school with a girl who had been adopted from Korea, and she too was put in with us right away, this was in 7th grade and by the end of the school year, she was speaking and understanding English with ease.

My experience was similar. Came when I was six, went to inner city Catholic school. My class was a mix of black and puerto rican. I was terrified and was glad to hear that some kids spoke spanish, so I could at least understand what was going on. Boy was I ever wrong and in shock!

The black kids welcomed me, were nice and tried to help as much as they could. They didn't see me as latina or white or tan, they saw a scared and confused kid.

The latino kids were vicious and racist. They enjoyed playing cruel tricks on me. The one that got me in hot water was when one boy told me that saying "eff you" sister was to show respect to them. I was stupid, I said it and ended up in the corner after I had the backs of my hands hit with a ruler. How the puerto rican kids laughed. My parents were called in and they gave me a beating when I got home. I never forgot it. I was demonized and vilified for not being puerto rican.

I got the last laugh though, I worked my tail off and learned to speak English like a native. Total immersion works.

Miguelina, that is good to hear you have a story which backs up immersion. I do believe it works.

ESL is a tax drain and a way for the Latino kids of illegals, to not assimilate. It becomes a crutch for them and they lag behind in school, and these days, and the whole class then suffers for it with lowered standards.

Kids are notoriously quick learners, especially early on in a language. Adults can too, but of course our ways are more set in and it becomes difficult to transition. I admire people who come here and work hard at it, it shows character.

Yes, thank you Miguelina for your story. I guess my big question is why does my school district even have an ESL for kindergarteners when they don't intend on teaching them English to be ready for the 1st grade? I guess the immersion happens once they get into first grade? I just don't want my daughters education to suffer because they have to accommodate these kids.

I don't understand it either. But all I have seen is basically teaching and catering to the Spanish kids and then I suppose expecting the American kids who speak English to catch up at home with their parents. I cannot see how you can go to school your whole life and then supposidly need a translator after you graduate. But it's happening. We hired a "bi-lingual" math teacher for the "bi-lingual highschoo program" and he doesn't speak English or any other language but Spanish. It's just a math class in Spanish for the Spanish speaking kids. They don't offer the bi-lingual education for any other group unless 20% of the class is all of the same group. Which means if you are from Korea, you are totally emmersed with the English speaking kids and left to sink or swim. I believe they do offer them tutors, but it's not at all the same as it is with the Spanish students, or near the attention and funding to help them.. To me they have no intention at all to have them speak English. When they were talking of the Dream Act and in-state tuition and free education, they were already trying to mandate that the colleges had a "bi-lingual" program with special classes for their "Spanish speaking students". DUGH? 12 years in a bi-lingual program, can't speak English and now want college courses taught in Spanish as well and still call it bi-lingual? Is it just me who doesn't get this? We have to have "bi-lingual" pre-school and day cares, which means you speak to the Spanish kids in Spanish and speak English to the English kids. There's nothing bi-lingual about it....or any real attempt to have them learn English. It's just a way to educate the Spanish speaking kids without having them learn English.

Miguelina made such a good point because that is what I saw. The students would help the Spanish speaking kids to learn and loved to do it, yet by the time they hit about 4th or 5th grade, their own turned on them, calling them traitors and talk about some good kids being torn apart. Especially the little girls. Alot of the girls ended up pregnant by 8th grade, doing their womanly duty of birthing babies and finding a husband and the boys left to work, sell drugs, or do manual labor. It was literally, have everything 100% catered to them or if you broke away you were a traitor. Not much different than what some of the black kids did to other black kids by saying they were "acting white" if they dug into the books and studied. Unfortunatly too many still find it easier to cave into that pressure than do like Miguelina did and just go for it, hanging out with those who wanted to see you succeded and pretty much being ostercised by the peers of your same race. It's not easy when you get that kind of pressure to break the mold.....then add parents who don't encourage it either and you have a tough time. I do see some parents encouraging it....but as with all kids, sometimes what their buds are doing has more influence than mom or dad.