Principal Fired For Telling Kids To Speak English at School

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


I guess I can see seasonal workers in texas, but I am talking about people actually living year round in the tristate. IMO it is not only irresponsible, but downright dangerous to have people that cannot speak the language on a construction site. Probably don't have the level of danger picking fruit or whatever that there is in a renovation job or even a brand new build. Not understanding "Hey, don't walk there, the subfloor is rotted out." could land you in a world of pain or dead for example.

reply to post by brandiwine14

brandiwine14
I thought schools are where we teach our children how to learn to become a productive members of society.

Not speaking the official language of your country is not productive. If they move here which I really don't have a problem with then they need to learn to speak english. You would think these parents would realize that.

America does not have an "official" language only a "language in use (de facto)", so no, nobody should be forced to speak English. People seem to forget that America was not established as a European country, but as "The New World" where people from different places can come, and even the original 13 colonies spoken different languages like Dutch, German, French, etc.

Overheard at a grocery store by someone waiting in line behind a woman speaking on her cellphone in another language.
Ahead of her was a white man. After the woman hangs up, he speaks up.

Man: " I didn't want to say anything while you were on the phone, but you're in America now. You need to speak English."

Woman: Excuse me?"

Man *very slowly* "If you want to speak Mexican, go back to Mexico. In America, we speak English."

Woman: "Sir, I was speaking Navajo (Native American Language). If you want to speak English. go back to England."

19KTankCommander
reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

 

The following states have existing official language laws on their books: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Wyoming. A small handful date back more than a few decades, such as Louisiana (1811) and Nebraska (1920).

Prior to 1969 it was "illegal" to speak "English" in the state of Illinois, the official language was "American"

reply to post by stargatetravels


While I agree on a broader sense with what you're saying, think of it this way: What if the majority is Hispanic? It'll only lead to segregation between Hispanics and non-Hispanics in the long run. Growing up, I went to many schools unfortunately. I never got the chance to settle down anywhere. But I did get to experience life throughout the United States. In Texas, I went to a school that was predominantly Hispanic. And although there was no negativity (we all got along great), my non-Hispanic friends and myself were often left out due to the fact that not only the kids during recess were speaking Spanish and we were left out because someone would forget to mention what's going on. Eventually, we started playing with each other simply due to the fact that we always knew what was being said.

And on a more serious note about that school, sometimes the teachers who were Hispanic would break out talking Spanish when it came to explaining certain things. (Like a brain fart, you forget what the word is in English so you say it in Spanish.) It wasn't done to alienate us, but it did.

Spanish has no place in a U.S. classroom. If that offends anyone, I suggest you re-evaluate what's important to you. And despite me not having an issue with either having Spanish spoken or banned on school grounds, there are reasons for why both are a good and bad thing.

**Edit**
reply to post by arpgme


And that's all fine and dandy back in the day. But surely even you can understand the issues that would arise if everyone would just speak whatever they felt like? Any country should have an official language to be spoken during school, business and things like that. It's like a cog in a greater machine. How do you expect a society to function if it can't mesh and work together?

The real world isn't a politically correct la-la land where everyone can be whoever they want and I can be the president if I just study hard. Life sucks at times, it's hard, no use in making it any harder for people. Just get it out of the way now and make English the official language as the overwhelmingly vast majority understands and speaks it in the U.S..

stargatetravels
Ban it in lessons - sure, Ban it in school meetings and so on, no problem.
But to ban students speaking languages ANYWHERE on school campus seems draconian and unfair.
I dont see how kids in the school yard or sports field, hanging out, chatting with friends in whatever language they like, actually affects anyone?

It doesn't. I lived in a small town in my teens filled with immigrants & the kids of immigrants from Romania, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus. They all spoke their parents' mother tongue, and did so often at school. It bothered precisely nobody, because it was chatter between friends/family either between classes, during lunch, or during those do-whatever times in class when things wrapped up early. Give me a fricking break, Spanish is not going to be the death of school if those weren't. Anyone who thinks so, but disagrees that Eastern European languages would need to have a long, hard look in the mirror with a little internal reflection.