The Model

It only seems fair, my darling Multicultural Studies students, that if I force you to start a blog chronicling  your experiences with the ELL students and multicultural issues in general, that I too should join along.

I had my own misconceptions about our school's ELL program (which I always referred to by its old acronym, ESL... my bad). I thought the program here kept all the students in one room for all their classes. Completely cutting them off from everyone. I also was under the impression that there was a Spanish speaking teacher (which also infers that I believed that only Latino students were in the class) with them... well, I guess we all learned that just isn't so. I had no idea before we started this partnership last year what these students go through on a daily basis. The struggles of learning, history, literature, and science all in a language that is not their own. I even stumbled across this video, made by students, about the way teachers handle ESL learners. The video, while done is stick drawing, makes a poignant statement about how hard it can be to be an ESL learner as compared to the average student. We take a lot of our communication methods for granted--the idea of sitting in a class and not having the option for the teacher to speak in your own language seems, forgive the pun, completely foreign to many of us.

Even as an exchange student who did not initially speak the language of my host country, you would think I would be understanding of this--however, I think it's so much worse as they have no escape. I always knew I would be returning to the U.S. and things would be easier. Things are not going to get any easier for these kids--quite the opposite--the more they pursue a higher education, the more they will be met with obstacles. What kind of system is that? Are we really helping to prepare them for their future--or do we give them false hope?

I notice how some of the students have very supportive home lives and really do push to do well, while some of the others I believe have seen their families burned by the system and have a more jaded sense of what their lives will really amount to--this is the most upsetting thing for a educator to see. We, educators, all want to see every student have the opportunities to pursue all and any career path they choose--and that's just not so for some of these students. In an article by Kim Girard, "Lost in Translation," she brings up the the controversy that splays "a contentious debate over how to best educate these students has grown, and this political battle is far from over. In addition, as the pros and cons of bilingual education versus English-language immersion are researched and reviewed, current and prospective teachers get few opportunities to train in either approach before facing classes full of kids who don't understand what the adults in front of their classrooms are saying." I myself have no idea what kind of take home each individual student has when they speak so little English and no one is there to help them in their own language. Does the girl really understand "The Gettysburg Address" or know what it is at the end of the day? Does immersion work, or do we just tell ourselves it does?

I think spending more time with the students and trying to get a sense of how they feel regarding their education will help me understand whether or not the system is working. Though, part of me really just wants to ask them what their ideal classroom would be like...