This is an interesting, easy to understand explanation of why it is important for all people to have more than one language. - - Donna Poisl
By Janet Nolan and Maria Vargas, Co-chairs, Multilingual Chicago
Juan Maldonado, the 15-year-old teen in Oscar Avila's story "Alone, Adrift. U.S.-born immigrants lost in Mexican Schools," (Chicagoland, April 12), did not have to feel "stupid" when his family moved him from West Chicago, Ill. to Mexico.
It's never easy being the new kid on the block, but had Juan been exposed to a culture and educational system that values and builds proficiency in one's home language and adds a second, he would have been prepared to embrace the language and culture of his extended family.
Many Americans and recent arrivals to our country mistakenly believe all children should learn English first. While learning English quickly is crucial for adults to function well in the United States, applying this straight-from-the-gut outlook to children is fundamentally flawed. And this attitude, which masquerades as common sense and has been unwittingly co-opted by many legislators, educators and the general public, is hurting all children-- non-English and English-speaking alike.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.
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