And sometimes I have my own life, my own work to do, but I have to stop to help my brother or leave to go with mother or father. It is tiring. Teachers and administrators in schools like P.S. 139, where 36 different languages are spoken and 77 of the 100 children in kindergarten come from homes in which the parents speak a foreign language, say young children must often mediate with parents to get them to conform to American society. And each new hurdle loads more onto the children. Dr. Gary D. Goldenback, the supervisor of the E.S.L. program for District 28, which includes P.S. 139, says that when children are taken out of school to accompany parents to appointments or on routine chores, the missed classes can affect homework and test scores.
Conflict often erupts around benign and simple tasks.
Many immigrant parents will not sign school permission slips or allow their children to go on overnight trips. They fear that something could happen to the child if they sign anything, even a report card. Classrooms must also adjust to new traditions, such as allowing Muslims to skip lunch during Ramadan, and new cultural sensitivities. One day Mitre did something I perceived as brilliant. I said it was not just one thumb up, but two thumbs up.