*principal (rookie mistake!)

Amy Lacey interfered with the politically-correct movement to turn the USA into Babel -- in which there is serious money to be made in the confusion.

Not good for the country, GREAT for special interests.

Aside from the Spanish language issue kids are so incredibly rude in the classroom now.

I had a family friend come visit me and she told me why she was leaving the teaching profession. Basically she can't enact and enforce *any* laws in her classroom.

She will get reprimanded by the parent or the administrator or the principal or the county.

And because she works with kids with average intelligence but granted special rights since they have things ADHD, dyslexia, etc. , she will get reprimanded by various other disability boards.

She also told me the California State Education Board in no uncertain terms encourages teachers never to fail anyone. And legally I believe she is not allowed to when it comes to the disabled (could be wrong?)

"This is a thorny issue for teachers in settings with large numbers of students who speak languages other than English."

Actually, no, it isn't a "thorny" issue; or in the very least it shouldn't be considered one.

English is the primary language used by the majority of citizens in the US, it is also the main language used by B2B around the world, even when the parties involved in B2B don't speak English as their first language.

If parents, and their children, want to cry racism because an educator is telling them that one way to improve their English is by using it and that will help them in the world - then leave them behind as far as I'm concerned.

It is somewhat interesting that so many other groups in the US are getting ahead - just look at the recent influx of folks from India flooding the high tech jobs here in the US - while so many blacks and Hispanics are staying behind or falling behind.

And all they do is cry "racism." Eventually (and it won't come soon enough for me) most folks, and the politicians will stop pandering to them and say - tough sh&t!

I do hope that principal finds a better job elsewhere. Maybe being fired is a blessing?

"the politicians will stop pandering to them and say - tough sh&t!"

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Agree w/Ppen on this one.

It's money in the bank (check w/Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson) for a lot of people.

It's also not a new problem. It is an old allowed to fester by the Teacher's Union.

20 years ago had a neighbor quit the day she was told by the principal to stop sending a disruptive abusive threatening bully (girl) to the office. She walked out the door and went to Ark. to run a chicken farm. (That's quite a alternative.)

Blacks, Hispanics, and others believe they are being cheated. Asians believe they can overcome racism and the system through hard work. (Generalities but that is what I have observed among neighbors and family.)

The World does not care about these kids unless it disrupts the money chain. I am ashamed that my Texas environment has been corrupted to this extent.

(Hope there is a backlash coming but I really do not care what happens to these kids as they deserve whatever they get. Just waiting for the bill to come in the mail.)

Too many of the Spanish speaking students in that school will never become comfortably self-sufficient or successful even if they do become fluent in English, because they and their parents are too stupid. Their inability to understand the importance of learning English, the way students living on almost every other continent in the world do, is just evidence of their stupidity, as is blaming the consequences of their own choices, weaknesses and shortcomings on the real or imagined racism of someone else.

My cousin's Filipino wife has a bunch of relatives who immigrated to the U.S. from the 1970's through the 1990's. Most of them spoke little or no English when they arrived. Some of them still don't speak English very well, but they all earn good livings, and their children have done even better. I work with immigrants from the Philippines, India, Gambia, Nigeria, Moldova, Ukraine, Russia, Romania and a couple other places. Most of them learned to speak English, somewhat, in their home countries, worked hard to improve it after they came here, and went to colleges or trade schools in the U.S.

I attribute their success, not to their ability to speak English well, but to having the intelligence and common sense that enables them to understand that speaking English in a country where most people speak only English makes a lot of sense if you want to get a good education and do business. They have better things to do than be oppressed by racists; so they ignore them and get busy earning money.

A huge obstacle for many Latinos and African Americans is their racist obsession with being not-white.

Yea, Ppen, I laughed as I wrote it too.

I agree with everything that Bob in TX and Ken R wrote - it ain't never going to happen - these folks will stay behind and always blame others.

Our current President fits that profile all too well. It's always someone else fault.

Oh, and Bob, I'll bet that running that chicken farm was a lot easier than working in the educational bureaucrazy.

I grew up bilingual with an immigrant mom but I don't count because my mom assimilated and she was from Europe anyways. Ask me how often teachers worried about teaching me in my mothers' native tongue. Answer... not once.

US public schools don't need more money. They need to stop spending half of it on administrators that actively make teachers jobs more difficult.

To elaborate on what Ken R wrote, African and Jamaican blacks do just fine by adamantly refusing to be a part of the toxic African American culture.

The only way that public education in the U.S. is going to be salvaged is that the existing public school system has to be bypassed. The existing apparatus will always fight any and all reforms tooth and nail -- confronting them head on is not going to be successful. We have to go around them. Home schooling has made some progress, but it's not a practical option for a lot of people. Some areas have had success getting charter schools launched. There has been some progress on tuition vouchers, but the problem with them is that the available choices for voucher holders are usually either religious schools that may clash with their own beliefs, or high-end private schools for exceptional students. I'm wondering when the private schools for the masses will start appearing.

I'm seeing a few different ads for online public schools like K12.

That could be another solution.

I'd just tell them to practice their English in class. There are more job opportunities to the fully bilingual.