Dual-Language Classes: Are They Just a Waste of Words?

Re “Dual-Language Classes Train for Diversity,” Sept. 3:

District officials at Santa Ana say that the Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr. schools have proved successful. Looking at the Stanford 9 scores, I see that Jefferson has 62% of its fifth-grade students below the 50th percentile, and Martin has 87% of its students below the 50th percentile.

That is hardly successful.

About seven years ago, Davis Elementary chose to be a dual-immersion school. Davis talked of the same incremental Spanish/English throughout the grade levels. The 2002 Stanford 9 scores showed that 87% of the fifth-grade class is below the 50th percentile.

Speaking mostly Spanish to kids already versed in the language is bilingual education by another name. How are they going to learn to read and speak English if all they hear is mostly Spanish, day and night?

Michael Charles

Irvine

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The author of the story on Spanish immersion classes seemed unaware of Las Palmas Elementary School in San Clemente, which has had the program for some time. I have two grandchildren there who are progressing beautifully. They are in first and third grades, and we all appreciate the way the teachers and the staff approach this important method of learning both Spanish and English. Parents drive many miles so their children can be involved with this excellent bilingual learning program.

Jane Simpson

Dana Point

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It was ironic to note that Proposition 227, the “English only” initiative passed by voters four years ago, has been circumvented with the tactic of dual-language immersion in Santa Ana. This end-run around the law is promoted by activist Nativo Lopez. Latino parents, wanting English instruction, are demanding his recall from the school board. Lopez denies that this is his tactic. But if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, chances are that it is a duck.

“Things are changing demographically,” stated one apologist for the bilingual program. No doubt about that. Thirty years ago, the Santa Ana Unified School District was 92% Anglo. Today it is 92% Hispanic. But the argument for “dual-language” instruction for living in a “diverse community” is a specious one. Santa Ana is not a diverse American community. It is a Mexican colony, plain and simple.

Joseph A. Lea

Mission Viejo