Hempstead principal ban students from speaking Spanish

Maybe the school should try to teach English instead of telling students not to speak Spanish?

 

POR DIOS NO OTRA VEZ!

 

I don't know what you just said, but go ahead and assume it's been backtraced, buster.

 

I'm with you on this one.

Reminds me of a high school teacher I had. There were a large amount of Spanish speakers in my school, and we had this older white guy as a teacher. He got on to a mexican guy for talking (in english) during class. After the 2nd time he admonished the boy, the boy turned to a couple of mexican girls and made a smart@$$ remark in spanish. At that point, the teacher called him out again..but this time in perfect spanish. That boy was so embarrassed because he had no idea this old white guy could understand him. He behaved for the rest of the day.

 

they are, it's called ESL. I have seen 6th graders that didn't speak a word of english become fully fluent by the end of their 8th grade year.




but let's make fun of what an 11 year girl Hispanic girl says.

 

It's probably more an execution problem than a policy problem. I'd have a problem with it if they banned Spanish from school grounds, but this alleged ban is during class. If a class is conducted in English, it's disruptive to speak in Spanish and that should not be allowed. But, at lunch or in the halls or the playground, kids should be free to converse as they please. From the kids' comments, it sounds like they got the impression that Spanish isn't welcome anywhere -- that might be because the communication of the policy was inartfully done, or it could be that kids are dumb and make dumb assumptions.

 

What about speaking Spanish in Spanish class?

 

As a father of a 13 year old, I think it's the kids making dumb assumptions. Middle school kids are damn annoying.

 

if a student doesn't understand what the teacher is teaching, maybe because of language barrier issues (obviously), is it so wrong for a fellow student to try and help understand the concept by translating in Spanish?

 

Yeah, we had kids to do this all the time in HS in korean or spanish.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see bilingual education in the southwest US in my lifetime. I think a few schools in Miami do it, and I think they have the system in Puerto Rico, where classes interchange English and Spanish.

 

This is some bs.

 

I'm sure this is what they're doing, and not making snide remarks about the teacher in a language he doesn't understand, or making off-color jokes about the white girl.

(Actually getting translation help was something I did in middle school because I was attending a French school and when I was completely lost and was expected to do some activity, I'd ask a neighbor what the hell was going on. But when I did, it was disruptive to the class. And, I also knew that all my teachers that taught in French also were fluent in English so I couldn't get away with anything.)

I'm guessing most of these teachers don't speak Spanish, so they can't tell if it's a student getting help or gossiping. Either way, talking in class is generally only allowed in a group activity where all participants need to understand what's being said. If there are students who don't speak English well enough, that's something the school should be tackling, not relying on fellow students for translation work.

 

¡Viva la raza!

 

Maybe instead of insisting the children not speak spanish we could get some bi-lingual teachers and principals so the issue won't matter.

 

Just say no talking in class problem solved.

DD

 

Meanwhile, TH Rogers MS principal David Muzyka delivers weekly updates to parents via email and phone in English and Spanish

 

i see nothing wrong with this, this is america.. not mexico