Education, Immigration Issues
Out of School, Out of Luck: California's Immigrant Youth Face Uncertain Futures
Over a quarter of million immigrant youth are out of school. "Children are the future." If you believe this overused quote, which I personally do, what does this mean for our future, for their future? The cycle of poverty, racism, and unfulfilled potential of our young will surely continue.
I teach reading in a 100% Latina/o school, mostly made up of first or second generation immigrants and I must say that we are failing them. The biggest reason is that we have closed-minded people writing our nations' curriculum. Anyone who sees the fact that our students are bilingual as a problem toward their education is harming our students, yet this is the prevailing thinking. The fact that my students speak two languages is not only valuable on face value, but has the potential, if accessed, to open doors even in monolingual-English environs. Any sixth grader who can naturally and regularly use vocabulary such as "castigate" and "cognizant" is well situated to have voice in our society, and my sixth graders can and do, they just say "castigar" y "conocer." Spanish isn't a barrier to my students' success, like most would believe, it is the key.
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