Her first teaching job was in El Paso, where she was assigned to teach Hispanic first-graders who had been held back because of language difficulties. She was hurt and puzzled. Finally, a colleague told her she would be fired if she continued speaking Spanish to the children. She can't shake that image of Spanish-speaking children living in fear of punishment if they spoke their native language. Children who speak a language other than English should be encouraged to keep that language intact while learning English, she said.
Kids can add a language.
By teaching students math, science and other subjects in their native tongue while they learn English, schools avoid holding children back or making them feel inadequate, she said. In the highly diverse San Francisco schools, children arrive speaking 64 languages. Thirty percent of the 65,500 students are not proficient in English. And people thinking they're stupid when they're not. She and other teachers also worry they may be sued if they speak Spanish or any other non-English language in a classroom if bilingual education is banned, even if a child is in desperation and needs a gentle word of encouragement in a familiar language.