IMMIGRATION And EDUCATION

Maureen, The Times ran an article this weekend on the problems of educating immigrant kids with no English, and that separate classes teaching immigrant kids in their native languages ( "a school within a school") are counterproductive, since the immigrants are isolated from homegrown kids and feel that much more stigmatized by their culture, dress, ethnicity, etc.


I have a solution. The details would need to be worked out for individual situations.

I propose adding a half hour -45 minute period each school day for a workshop strictly on English that would be operated by the older kids, preferably one-on-one. The older kids would be either homegrown kids or other immigrants who have become reasonably proficient in basic English. In general, 6 graders would work with first graders; 7 graders with 2nd graders etc to 12th graders working with 6th graders. The work sessions would be simple --merely going over the day's work covered by the teacher that day.

I have found that each child masters a particular task in his or her own way, learning memory shortcuts or techniques for learning that often come from a different perspective than the adult teacher. Secondly, for the younger student, merely trying to explain to the older student what the day's lesson covered would be a reinforcing learning step. Thus, each work session would start with the question: "Okay, what did you guys go over today?" "Okay.show me your workbook and what you did, or show me the pages in the text you were assigned.' The conversation will flow from this point on, and shortly will extend to sports, TV shows, favorite music, family, chores at home, etc. All of this is good --the young will ask, "how do you say . . . ." and the older will say, "No, this is how you say , . . . or, this is how you write . . "

The work sessions will be productive even if nothing academic is accomplished --they will inevitably create a form of bonding between the students , if nothing elseUsing older, largely home-grown students to tutor/mentor young immigrant children will, inevitably, ease the social -ethnic-cultural barriers, no matter what else is accomplished by the conversation between the two students. Surely, however, the young students' grasp of English undoubtedly will be improved.

Without question, the better one's grasp of English in America, the better the potential for an improved level of employment and living standard. In my experience, no matter the level of intelligence, without an immersion in the English language and its grammatical rules at an early age, a foreign-born person will never be able to write or speak English effectively. The program I propose will inevitably close this gap in English usage between foreign-born and American-born children.

Establishing my proposed "one-on-one" student program will likely require some incentive for the older student. That incentive may vary from one student body to another. It could range from an outright payment of money from the school budget (comparable to babysitting pay); college or vocational school tuition credit at any in-state post-high school educational program --perhaps at the rate $1000-1500 /year up to a total of $ 6000-9000 for the hypothetical six years a student could partake in the program (i.e.,from grade 6 through grade 12); special recognition at junior high and high school graduation ceremonies, or at sports performance recognition events; college credits in basic English course(es); etc.

The one-on-one sessions could be instituted at each school on a trial basis, perhaps scheduled only twice a week, and then evaluated after a month or two to determine the respective students' views. Or, the sessions could be twice a week for grades 1-3 and three times a week for grades 4-6.

Another possible option would be start the program much later, beginning with the seventh grade --i.e., 10 graders on 7th grade, 11 on 8 and 12 on 9th graders. However,this may be too late from the standpoint of both assimilation and gaining an early foundation in basic English. The premise of my one-on-one program is that the foreign-born student will have enough foundation in English by the end of the sixth grade to move forward on his or her own. Also, i believe the youger the better with regard to both a willingness on the part of both students to cooperate in the learning process and also with regard to a less likehood of an ingrained prejudice by either child against the other.


Bob Paulson
525 East 86th Street
New York, New York 10028
bobpaulson@rcn.com