<p>The parents forum has a good thread on this very topic. 20 pages long!</p>
<p>stronger vo-tech options for students, particularly those who are not inclined to continue their schooling past hs.</p>
<p>development of school-private sector business connections to introduce students to life opportunities after school, provide professional mentors/role models, etc.</p>
<p>end teacher tenure and non-merit raises beyond COL increases.</p>
<p>End or significantly amend the NCLB legislation. One size does not fit all school districts.</p>
<p>Do nothing. It works just fine. We are already the world leader in producing Wal-Mart clerks, so what else would you want?</p>
<p>I don’t even know where a Walmart is in the Seattle area- but whatever
[see thread for meaning of whatever](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=302910”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=302910</a>)</p>
<p>However- we aren’t apparently the world leader in producing hotel maintenance staff.
When I was 19- several of my friends either worked at hotels cleaning rooms or at fast food places- ( all caucasian incidentally), I worked at a record store.</p>
<p>But now, every time I stay in a hotel- the maintenance staff always seems Hispanic and the front desk staff is more often than not Asian.</p>
<p>so whats up with that? :rolleyes:</p>
<p>The white high school grads are out in the 'burbs, working at Wal-Mart. ;)</p>
<p>Dr.DrewsMom:</p>
<p>Bingo. (Post 19) (And this why marite was right, that we should merge this thread with the one on Steve Jobs.)</p>
<p>The reason that this most logical of steps is not taken is that – at least in my state – it is major un-PC to do so. But it is damned practical. Immersion in the host country’s language is the only way to make progress. The crutch of speaking it at home & the struggle of learning in it at school is resulting in students plateauing, regressing, & dropping out – and in fluent students’ being ignored for the majority non-English speakers.</p>
<p>Ditto for “the entire school” option as well. I have been saying this for several years. You see, some States, afflicted as they are with various political diseases, & as infected with those diseases the public education appartus is, are more interested in Multiculturalism as a priority. Never mind that the various cultures IN THE LANGUAGE ARTS AND OTHER CORE COURSES are not learning by being thrown together with mixed languages & cultures. </p>
<p>But some unenlightened states like my own cannot distinguish between the important difference between bilingual education (now formally a thing of the past in my locale) and ESL education. Desperately, desperately, students who are not fluent enough to learn in the second language, need as a priority and an entree, a reversal of that. Neither ESL students nor non-ESL students are making advances in these classrooms which ignore The Elephant in the Room.</p>
<p>epiphany, the good news (if any) for very young students----and I’m talking about recent immigrants—is that they learn English fairly quickly. Especially in an immersion situation. However it is almost impossible for a non-ESL teacher to be expected to know all the things the non-native English student doesn’t know because of language, or doesn’t know just because he/she doesn’t understand the content. It might be great for brand new English-learning students to be in a separate school…just until they are at a fluent level. At that separate <em>transitional</em> school they could have teachers who are all ESL trained. Maybe such places already exist…I really don’t know as I haven’t researched it.</p>
<p>epihf,</p>
<p>I understand where your coming from and I agree in many ways about ESL kids, they need a combination of both their native language and english with a gradual push to all english after a period of time. The problem is many people think it is just Spainish that is the foriegn lagauge in question.</p>
<p>A couple years back my spouse’s 3rd grade had five different (non english) languages spoken from spainish, hmong (sp?) to different variations of russian and slavic languages. Doesn’t the LA school district have something like 29 languages spoken among students? How do we serve all these languages? How do we pay for serving all these languages? It’s an awful lot to expect an educator to know a dozen foriegn languages at the drop of a hat.</p>