Freedom Of Choice And Bilingual Education

6 Pages 1567 Words

Freedom of Choice and Bilingual Education


Bilingual education is a hot topic in California. With the swelling tide of Spanish speaking immigrants comes the question of whether to adopt bilingual education or to stick with English-only education. Numerous arguments are present on each side, but the real question - the true bottom line - seems to be culture and the cost of its preservation to society: Spanish-speaking immigrants don’t want to lose their culture in the process of assimilation, and Americans feel they shouldn’t be forced to cater their society to immigrants. Where should the responsibility of culture preservation rest? Should Americans be forced to cater their society to Spanish-speaking immigrants? I believe it is not the responsibility of Americans or the American government to provide bilingual education for immigrants; immigrants make the choice to immigrate. Before my views on bilingual education can be discussed in depth, some of the common opposing points of view regarding bilingual education deserve an explanation.
Richard Rodriguez, somewhat ironically, is an advocate of English-only education. For his views, he has received much criticism from the Spanish-speaking American community. Rodriguez grew up as a bilingual American and, from his experience, feels that bilingual education prolongs the process of assimilation that immigrants must go through to become a part of American society. Furthermore, he feels that bilingual education hinders the realization of a student’s public identity – an identity which allows one to achieve full public individuality. Rodriguez grew up feeling that Spanish was a private language and English a public one, and he asserts that learning the English language is not only an obligation but also a right: a right of immigrants to “speak the public language of los gringos” (757). Bilingualists, according to Rodriguez, “scorn the value and necessity of assimilation”...