Kastelic predicted a new crop of adult students whose awareness of the importance of their children's education was raised by the high-profile campaign debate over Proposition 227. San Diego, ahead of most local districts in starting the new classes, already has half a dozen of its adult students fulfilling their pledges by volunteering in kindergarten classes at Central Elementary School in City Heights. There's an added dimension to the new classes beyond traditional English as a second language. The Proposition 227 programs are geared toward family literacy. San Diego's program exposes adults to children's literature, gives them vocabulary and technique tips for working with picture books and helps them understand the nonfiction books on dinosaurs and other children's fascinations.
Some programs have parents work directly with their children in class to learn English together.
Even though the kids aren't part of the lesson, several toddlers accompany their mothers to Garrison in Oceanside. Velasco said she wants to help Isaac and her kindergartner, Azucena, and she needs to learn English to do that.