Bilingual education is an important and wonderful aspect of American education. Bilingual or duo-language education makes schools much better for immigrants because they can learn English through their native language. In addition, duo-language education will help preserve the immigrants native culture. Before the Bilingual Act in 1969, immigrants, namely Mexican-Americans and Hispanic-Americans, created an uproar against the government because they felt that they were being suppressed and their culture was being ignored. Biligualism became the most important factor between voting democrat or republican. Mexicans and Puerto Ricans were strong advocates for the democratic party, which is why the democratic party won and passed the Bilingual Act. We can see how important it is to preserve one’s native culture even in modern society. We have various ethnic parades to celebrate the many different backgrounds there are in America, and to implement bilingual education in schools is a great idea. Students not only learn a language other than English, but they get to experience a different culture if the second language is not theirs. I know there has been a lot of debate going on over whether or not the United States should have an official language that is English. It would completely eliminate the use of bilingual education, which would then cause a bigger uproar because the U.S is made up of so many different ethnicities. But with so many ethnicities in America, how do we choose which other language is appropriate to teach in the school system?
Another interesting point was the section about children with special needs. For years children with disabilities were neglected and segregated for being different and learning in a different style. It is without a doubt to say that that type of unfair treatment should not be tolerated. Yet we still see a divide in schools where children who learn at the average rate are put together in one class, and those who have special needs are put into separate classes. I don’t think this is a reasonable way to divide children. Children will automatically know who is more capable and who is not, and for the school system to draw clear lines to show the difference makes it no different from bullying. I still think that there is much to be done over this situation because any type of division in the school will be critiqued by parents and the public. Students with disabilities are still capable of learning, they just learn at a different speed or through a different technique. It wouldn’t be okay if the world favored normal people over those who have special needs, so why implement that when children are young? Many people fail to remember that what children experience when they are younger will and can dramatically affect them when they are adults, so if they were taught in an environment where people with differences need to be separated, they will not be open to the different types of people there are in the world. So, what can be done to close this gap between special education and “normal” education learners so that we can have a fairer school system?
