Wednesday, April 28, 1999. Garcia asks in a heavy Spanish accent. Garcia and about 25 other mothers are playing a game of Bingo using picture charts and words to practice the English they have been learning at their children's school, Esther Walter Elementary in Anaheim. The initiative also promised to pay schools to tutor adults in English - if those adults promised to take their new language skills back into the community. Every Monday and Tuesday morning, they park their baby strollers in the multipurpose room near their seats on a lunch-table bench.
Some mothers carry sleeping babies on their backs while scribbling notes into a three-ring binder.
The more English I learn, the more I can help with their homework. And in smaller groups, they learn tips on how to help their kids learn English by using things around the house. A box of crayons can be a tool to practice the colors in English. Rolling dice or pulling cards out of a deck can help children memorize numbers in English. This effort to teach adults is supposed to help foster English in communities often isolated by language, but some say the idea of making these parents and grandparents real teachers isn't so simple.