Freedom Of Choice And Bilingual Education

6 Pages 1567 Words

(761) and insist that immigrant students should be reminded that they are different from others in society. However, they fail to realize that only private individuality is derived from separateness, and, in fact, public individuality is derived from being “part of the crowd” (761). Finally, those who “scorn assimilation” are “filled with decadent self pity” and “romanticize public separateness... [trivializing] the dilemma of the socially disadvantaged.” In summary, without mastering the public language of the United States (English), it is impossible for immigrants to achieve a public identity in their adopted country and enjoy the full political and social advantages of being an American. Since Rodriguez has received a great deal of criticism from the Spanish-speaking American community, the viewpoints of his critics also need to be explained here.
Ramon Saldivar, in Chicano Narrative, discusses Rodriguez’s abandonment of his own culture for the public identity afforded by the English language. Saldivar states that although English “opened doors to society’s networks, rewards, and recognitions,” it ...