Although a growing number of schools are adopting the two-way approach to bilingual education, these programs are still rare exceptions. Language learning is not two-way. The goal is not bilingualism, but English. Instead of doing away with bilingual education we should promote genuine bilingualism and find new ways to make all of our children bilingual. There are new and exciting approaches.
Children can become successful bilinguals.
We need to focus on high-quality bilingual education for all of our children. Maybe if we took learning a second language seriously in this country, the stigma would be removed from bilingual education. Barry McLaughlin is a professor of psychology . Currents online welcomes submissions of opinion pieces from faculty and staff. To submit an opinion piece, see policies and submittal procedure .