http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2010/08/25/Bilingual-Education-Does-Not-Work

The article “Bilingual Education Does Not Work” by Liz Peek, The Fiscal Times lays out reasons why bilingual education is not helpful or beneficial. She talks about how expensive it is to implicate, how important English is in the world, how it would put teachers at risk, and provides information on a different strategy called “structured Immersion” that she agrees with. There were things within this article that I both agreed and disagreed with. This article helped me see the topic in a different light and think critically.

One thing in this article I agreed with was the idea that Bilingual Ed is too expensive. Peek states “The fiscal 2010 budget appropriation for the Office of English Language Acquisition totaled $750 million and the request for the upcoming year is $800 million.” Hundreds more dollars would have to be spent on each student if Bilingual Ed was implemented.  Government funds are low as is, especially in regards to public education so this would probably be a major obstacle. Another aspect of this article I agree with is that Bilingual Ed puts many teachers in a bad situation. Although it is not really talked about much, I can imagine that this would be really hard for teachers. With more money needed in the schools, teachers would probably be laid off and many of them wouldn’t be able to keep their jobs if they weren’t capable of teaching in more than one language. One thing that is frequently stressed throughout the article is how important English is. “English is the official language of 63 countries. More than 80 percent of all technological information is published in English and it is the language of almost all software source codes. It’s essential that anyone hoping to compete in the global economy master English.” It is very clear that English is a dominant language and I agree that all students should be thoroughly learning it so that they may be successful in America and the rest of the world. Lastly, I agree with the idea of Structured Immersion. “children initially are taught English in separate classrooms for part of the day, along with others who grow up speaking a different language at home, but are quickly thrust into classrooms where the teaching is in English.” I think this would benefit most people because it wouldn’t hold the English speakers back, wouldn’t require more of the classroom teacher, and would help the English learner get on track, without being completely forced into an English classroom with no experience. However, I do think that the English students should be required to take a language class as well, perhaps during the time that the English learners are out of the classroom.

I definitely did not entirely agree with this article. I found it to be very biased and one-sided. It was difficult for me to trust the author’s opinion because of her strong, narrow-minded views that she made very clear and obvious. She rarely brought up the other side of the argument, which ultimately made her side weaker. Peek made it seem that English is the only important language in the World. Although I do believe it is an extremely important language, I don’t think that if students only learn English they will be able to compete well in the global market. Several jobs today require language skills other than English. Also, English isn’t even the official language of the US.  I also thought many of Peeks arguments could’ve been elaborated further. Lastly, I don’t quite understand her statement “kids should not be separated by language and ethnicity; they’ll never catch up.” I don’t see how this aligns with her argument since she is very against Bilingual Education.

After reading this article I have much more insight on this topic and what I should look further into from here on out. I definitely will look into different programs like Structured Immersion and look at the costs of these program’s and how they may be funded. I also would like to know what is necessary to implement different programs so I can get a better idea of what may be the most reasonable solution. Lastly, I would like to look at more recent findings and find studies that show the results of various programs.