BILINGUAL SCHOOLS: GATEWAYS TO INTEGRATION OR ROADS TO SEPARATION

Abstract

Public education has long been viewed as the great social equalizer in American society. Many have pointed to public education as one of this country's greatest achievements. Because of the widespread acceptance of this belief, educational philosophy and practice has rarely been challenged, and then when it has by only a few dissidents. In recent years these dissidents have begun to raise their voices louder than ever. Although there is not unity among the critics of public education, one thing is clear: public education has not succeeded with all children. Some critics even claim that it has failed most children. Public education, moreover, is not the great social equalizer it is thought to be. For every child who has succeeded there are many more who have failed. The list includes, among others: immigrants, the poor, minority groups, women, the gifted, the independent, and the hyperactive. The causes of failure are many but most have to do with what we will call extracurricular rulesto learning. These have little to do with that set of principles laid down by psychologists and educators about the most efficient ways to learn in the classroom. Rather, these extracurricular rules have to do more with the correct language to speak in the classroom, grooming, the suppression of inquisitive ness, the ability to sit reasonably still for long periods of time, etc. There is a degree of racism, sexism, ageism, and anti-intellectualism in all of this. The focus of this paper will be on the education of children and adults who because of linguistic and/or cultural reasons are unable to cope with the extracurricular rules. Bilingual education has been proposed as a solution to the failure of educational philo sophy (i.e., equality through education) to match reality (i.e., educational opportunity is not equally distributed to all segments of United States society). Only a short space will be given here to the rather long history of bilingual education. Attention will be devoted more to the variability in goals and outcomes that exists among bilingual educational programs. We will show how some of these programs do not in reality present an educational alternative to the linguistic and/or culturally different learner and how other programs are so threatening that they cannot be tolerated by the American educational system. In the analysis, we will seek to establish a balance between types of bilingual educational programs and how these programs coincide with mainstream educational policy. Finally, guidelines for making Bilingual Educa tion a true educational alternative will be offered.

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