Schools Should End Up Hurting American Students

All languages are important and realizing it will make you become a stronger, more diverse human being. We need take make an effort not only for ourselves but for other citizens living in the United States who don’t speak English; we need to make them feel welcomed into our country. Marjorie Agosín described that,”here in the United States, where I have lived since I was a young girl, the solitude of exile makes me feel that so little is mine, that not even the sky has the same constellations, the trees and the fauna the same names or sounds, or the rubbish the same smell. These are the dilemmas of one who writes in Spanish and lives in translation”(Agosin 599). Agosín has lived in the United States for quite some time now, yet still feels like she is living a life through “translation”. She should not feel this way, Agosin should feel apart of our country and feel as if she is a citizen. It is important for us to take a stand now to make language become apart of the curriculum within our school systems starting in Kindergarten, so that our children have a more diverse life filled with opportunities. One thing we know about the future for sure is that we will still have our knowledge about language, but it is how we use that knowledge that will depict how we will succeed in life and as a

It is important in the United States to have a competitive workforce, and a great way to do that is to have a society of learners that can communicate with people of other cultures and ethnic backgrounds. Although there are efforts for teaching school children other languages, most programs are primitive at best, left to be forgotten before the skills reach the point of relevancy. Dual language programs should be established in the US wherever feasible to give parents, at the very least, the choice to expand the minds of their children. Recent years have seen the inclusion of voluntary language immersion programs in places such as Athens, Georgia, in which students are taught from Kindergarten in two languages. These are steps in the right

Education is important and should be available for everyone. Because of that, I strongly disagree that the government prohibit foreign students from attending college. One reason I maintain this position is that a lot of specialists that work in the US for example in technology are from other countries. In the article “International students in the US”, Project Atlas presents convincing data regarding the positive consequence of foreign students. For example, 20% of the college students that study engineering and graduate are foreign. Proponents of prohibiting exchange students tend to [point out that they take away resources that Americans could use. However, current data from US Study abroad actually demonstrate that a lot of US Students are in other countries to study and use their resources too. Another reason why foreign students should continue studying in the US is due the economy. In fact Huma Nisar shows in his article in “Views and News” that exchange students contribute $32 billion to the US economy in the year 15/16. This money is used and needed to improve the own education system. Equally important for those numbers are the relations that are built between countries and nations.

Fathers across the U.S are being taken away from their own homes forcibly. Small children are witnessing their own fathers be taken away helplessly, crying and screaming. Mothers and children left with no financial support and no father figure to have. Children start becoming a problem in school faced with anger and depression from their father being taken away. Hanging with the wrong crowd in order to not feel depressed could then lead to the use of drugs and drinking at an early age all because their father or mother was taken away. The families that suffer from this deportation aren’t guaranteed any financial help at all. Mothers are then left abandoned by their own government with their three or four children. The government overlooks the

This course has really enlightened my view of being able to learn the value of linguistic and cultural diversity and the influential learning opportunities it gives today’s classrooms and schools. We as teacher educators were allowed to examine our attitudes, beliefs, and preferences regarding linguistically and culturally diverse students, families, and communities and learn methods for working together to confirm high levels of learning for all students. Also, strategies for guaranteeing

A man walks into a room; the air smells of fresh drywall and high gloss paints. The wood floors have been polished recently, but the dim light makes it hard to see how perfect the floorboards were put together. The room is close to empty, only holding within the man who entered, and a display case being shone on by several spotlights. The man smiles with pride at the recent accomplishment. It has been at least 20 years since he has been in high school, and he finally made the perfect room to hold his most prized possession. He walks to the new, bullet proof display case in the middle of the room, and peers in, keeping his hands in his pockets for the fear of the temptation to touch the flawless glass. He thinks back to how he received such a wonderful object; sweaty games of football, loss after loss, him sitting on the bench most of the time. The day he saw the trophy written with his name on the front, and the “You

Teachers must learn about their student’s cultures if they want to educate them to the best of their ability. Many of the students in culturally diverse classrooms will want to learn in different ways. Some will want to learn in pairs, groups, as a class, or just alone. If the teacher is educated in their culture then lessons can be adjusted to appeal to every student as much as possible instead of forcing some to forget about their culture and learn like others. Students from

Immigrant students are among the fastest growing populations in American public schools. “The lives of secondary level immigrant students are extremely complex because they undergo change in many dimension in their lives at once. Not only are they grappling with obvious cultural and linguistic differences, but they must learn the institutional culture of school in order to be successful” (Pam McCollum, Ph.D. and Juanita García, M.A.) When students immigrate at school age, some of them go through the transitioning process with little to no issues. However, there are many who face issues in regards to cultural adaptations and social interactions. As David B. Tyack states in his text, ‘The One Best System,’ “challenges like Americanization of

Educational institutions are the true seats of learning. Someone, who is really anxious to learn, can develop healthy habits only in schools. In a school, we are taught how to move in society, how to behave with others and how to progress in life. If we want to increase success at people, there must be some changes in our educational system. My community needs some help to make it a better place to live in for the individuals trying are to succeed in life. To make the outside world a better place for learning and growing up, there are some changes that must take place. The educational gap between schools must be reduced, improvements in school culture and student discipline, adopt Easters way of learning, provide financial aid , an increase in occupations, safe environment ( reduce in crime rates). If

However, within the United States, I think it would also be beneficial to promote immersion schools modeled after the Navajo immersion programs. When speaking about Puente de Hózhó, the school’s co-founder Michael Fillerup claimed that, “the vision was to create a school where each child’s language and culture was regarded not as a problem to be solved but as an indispensable resource” (2013, p. 132). It would be interesting to see if academic performance is increased because there is some flexibility for students who aren’t native speakers of English, or if English speaking students also benefit from learning an additional language. I suspect there are a lot of benefits that can be gained for students of all language backgrounds, and the United States should be more open to instructing students based on the needs of local

Diverse cultures within the United States are rapidly developing and growing and the educational sector is the number one target to ensure that English –learners are receiving adequate education. Within the educational sector there are administrators and teachers who are involved in students lives on a daily basis to ensure that education is equal. In order to achieve the vital objective of equality, socio-cultural influences on ELL students, bilingualism and home language use, parental and community resources, and partnerships between families and schools all have to be considered to provide an opportunity for equal education.

“What it takes for English Learners to Succeed?” is an article written by Jana Echevarria, Nancy Frey, and Doug Fisher that discusses four accessible teaching practices that will allow English Learners in U.S. classroom to become academically successful and attain fluency in English. To clarify, the authors use practices such as access, climate, expectations, and language instruction to eliminate educational inequality and enable students to be able to fully participate in rigorous course work without excluding English Learners. Ultimately, this provides an approachable school reform, creates additive and transformative approach, as well as integration of multicultural perspective and lastly brings a way for language diversity to be seen in the classroom.

The author that stood out to me the most in the first unit was Gloria Anzaldúa. This is because I had made some personal connections to Anzaldúa’s piece on How to Tame a Wild Tongue. It was interesting to read the struggles of someone who grew up within the U.S. and personally experienced not only a language barrier between those who speak only English but also those of Hispanic descent who speak different types of Spanish dialects. From How to Tame a Wild Tongue Anzaldúa argues about how taking away or making someone conform their native language takes their identity away. In the U.S. we tend to be called a “melting pot” yet we still have a hard time accepting those who differ from ourselves. With English being the primary language in the U.S. many tend to make a causation/correlation relationship. In which is related to “If you live in the U.S. you need to speak only English”, obviously this is not the case. This carries on in our schools nationwide. While the U.S. has been making some changes related to letting children keep their native language and learn English, there still can be some negative stigma related to having a native language other than English. There are two major things I believe the U.S. should improve upon through schools throughout the country. We should not only work on improving the DLLs and ELLs classes, we additionally need to start incorporating various cultural diversity activities during class at younger ages. Children can be quite

There is one personal story that I have never told anyone, because I feel kind of ashamed if I talk about it. I actually have no knowledge of American History; even I went to the full four years public high school in America. That is why I am questioning the education system in the United States. Instead of spending countless periods in regular History and Biology classes without understand any materials, why schools do not offer History and Biology classes but just for ESL student, using simple and easier form of English to understand, so immigrant students can actually learn more about the subjects. In the addition, schools should also give an instructional program that give English language learners access to academic concepts and skills. Therefore, I certainly believe if there were program and curricular alternatives for students with limited English proficiency, students would not experience a difficult time with their school. Moreover, research has showed that due to these difficulties that immigrant students have to face, there is a high dropout rates among language-minority secondary school students. For example, Hispanic students are more likely than White students to leave school during their high school years (10% versus 4%; National Center for Education Statistics, 1996). In 1994, the number of Hispanic students aged 16-24 who had not completed high school and were not enrolled was 30%, as compared to 8% for White

Education is one of the most important factors in every person’s life regardless of where they’re from, their race, or their culture. Becoming educated not only makes life easier for us but also can help people become more successful in all things. However with so many people of various races, ethnicities and backgrounds in the United States it is difficult to create an education system that attends to each student’s individual culture. Ones own culture influences their actions and lifestyle, therefore this can create conflict if it is different from their schools cultural teaching style. Multicultural and multilingual classrooms have become the norm in many educational and professional settings throughout the U.S. because of changing immigration patterns caused by globalization (Institute for Educational Leadership, p. 2). For teachers today, it is essential to understand the role of culture and have the ability to interact interculturally in the classroom to create an effective learning environment. Analyzing cultural issues or differences can help teachers to understand some of the unconscious processes that shape individuals’ actions and interactions, as well as their language use and communication. “Teachers who understand cultural diversity…are more likely to be successful in their multicultural classrooms” (Samovar, Pg.2).