Thread: TX: Bilingual academic contest reaches out to students

More Pandering Going in Houston!!

Bilingual academic contest reaches out to students
Nov. 10, 2007, 6:56AM

By SARAH VIREN
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Today's academic match at Jack Yates High School could be trend-setting.

Among the several hundred precocious competitors will be a handful battling each other in Spanish — making this likely the first entirely bilingual meet overseen by the University Interscholastic League, which regulates everything from football to drama contests in Texas public schools.

Organizer Michael Fain sees the move as a way to draw more students to academic competitions, which historically are dominated by mostly English-speaking children from the suburbs and farmlands.

And if his idea works here, it could spread.

The UIL agreed last month to consider using Houston as a pilot project for adding Spanish to more academic face-offs.

"There is not a single person that has said we should not do this," said Fain.

"In fact, it's the opposite: They said if you do this, they will come."

Hired by the Houston school district two years ago to help drum up local interest in speech, debate and other academic events, Fain already has tripled participation in UIL competitions by HISD schools. Today's match will also be the district's first involving only elementary school students.

One such student, Dionny Rodriguez, couldn't have competed in the 30-minute timed creative writing contest with the previous English-only rule.

She came to Houston this year from Mexico, where the 7-year old used to recite poems in Spanish.

Part of a three-person team of creative writers from Emerson Elementary School, Dionny has spent at least two extra hours a week for the past month preparing for the event, teacher and trainer Zulema Esparza said. Friday night, after school, Dionny said she planned to sit in front of the timer for a half-hour to practice her writing one last time.

"It makes them feel like they could do more," said Esparza.

Statewide more than 2,700 elementary and middle schools sign their students up for state UIL academic competitions.

Ranging from storytelling to music memory contests and impromptu speaking, the events aim to spark creativity while keeping youngsters engaged in school. But for years, urban districts have lagged behind their suburban and rural peers at the elementary and middle school levels, said Treva Dayton, academic director for the UIL.

The organization just wrapped up a five-year push, funded by a federal grant, to change this. A new grant supports similar outreach for poor or disenfranchised students at the high school level, which sees more across-the-board participation.

Fain met with the organization's board last month to talk about his plans for adding bilingual events to Houston competitions. If the idea works, the organization might use today's event as a blueprint for statewide changes to elementary school contests, Dayton said.

That's just one way the nearly 100-year-old organization is changing with the state's shifting demographics. Recently, members approved mariachi as a new event in music competitions statewide. Other schools in the Rio Grande Valley and San Antonio have also been adding a limited number of bilingual events to academic competitions, Dayton said.

But this doesn't mean football fouls will be called in Spanish anytime soon. Dayton says there are limits to the language accommodations. Several districts have pressed for Spanish high school academic meets, for instance, but the organization has turned them down, saying it doesn't have the resources.

If these kids want to participate in these 'academic' competitions, they should learn English!! I thought being proficient in ENGLISH was a requirement to graduate??

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 90368.html

America was once heavely populated by Germans and we didn't adopt German as the language of America so there is no damn good reason to adopt Spanish.

The only reason this is an issue is because of the illegal aliens that got amnesty and didn't have to learn English before they got their citizenship.

Yes, I said it and I pointed out the cause of the problem.

Dixie

Most of the spanish speakers in this country are illegal. this same thing is happening in Los Angeles in which we have to accomodate Spanish because they DO NOT SPEAK ENGLISH.

Why we subsidize this behaviour is WHY WE GET MORE OF IT!!!!