Where Education and Assimilation Collide

There are many immigrants in the schools, and still no consensus on how best to teach them English. Some think keeping them in ESL classes separates them too much and they learn English too slowly. Some of the students agree too. Read this article, very interesting. - - Donna Poisl

By GINGER THOMPSON

WOODBRIDGE, Va. — Walking the halls of Cecil D. Hylton High School outside Washington, it is hard to detect any trace of the divisions that once seemed fixtures in American society.

Two girls, a Muslim in a headscarf and a strawberry blonde in tight jeans, stroll arm in arm. A Hispanic boy wearing a Barack Obama T-shirt gives a high-five to a black student with glasses and an Afro. The lanky homecoming queen, part Filipino and part Honduran, runs past on her way to band practice. The student body president, a son of Laotian refugees, hangs fliers about a bake sale.

But as old divisions vanish, waves of immigration have fueled new ones between those who speak English and those who are learning how.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.