“The truth is that the Mexican students have no interest in learning English—or in becoming real Americans.”
By Joe Guzzardi
The other day, I received a panicked phone call from an English as a Second Language teaching colleague at the Lodi Adult School.
“I need help,” she said, “None of my citizenship students speak English!”
Here’s the background: in response to requests from neighborhood Hispanics—who no doubt anticipate amnesty legislation—the Adult School added a section of ESL that focuses on the U.S. citizenship test.
I had taught this exact class twenty years ago during the disastrous 1986 amnesty. But since I am on leave, another teacher stepped in.
What she discovered, only two sessions into the class, is that few of her students could carry on a basic conversation in English—even though most have lived in the U.S. for more than a decade. “I can’t teach them English and citizenship at the same time,” she told me.
And, of course, she is right. Students don’t need to be fluent to master the basics of the citizenship test. God knows we can’t expect that. But they should be able to speak and understand English at a fundamental level before taking an examination to become citizens.
No one can learn about the Constitution or the Supreme Court if they cannot answer the question: “Where do you live?”
(In fact, fluency in English is technically a pre-requisite for becoming a citizenship—but, like the passage in the oath about “abjuring foreign potentates” and the provision that immigrants should not become a “public charge”, it’s been quietly deep-sixed. For example, applicants over fifty don’t even have to try to speak English. )
My friend will muddle on, hoping for the best. What she will soon learn is that, in addition to not speaking English, students will, for example, enroll during her lesson on the Civil War despite having missed her preceding lectures on the 100 years of U.S. history leading up to it. This, if Teddy Kennedy has his way, is what will pass for “mastering” civics.
http://www.vdare.com/guzzardi/070525_amnesty.htm