mexican americans
Since the 1970s, Mexican-Americans in the United States have been identified as apathetic, indifferent, and disinterested in the process of attaining an education. Many Americans point to the high Mexican-American drop-out rates and the low number of Mexican-American professionals as a confirmation of this stereotype. This Latino group has struggled to dispel the characterization. In response, Mexican-Americans, as well as Anglo-Americans, have searched for ways to counter such misinformation. As a result, many communities have adopted bi-lingual programs, in order to help Mexican-American students ease into English submersion by using both the Spanish and English languages in the educational process. Detractors argue that such programs require the Mexican-American student to maintain ties to two languages, causing confusion and learning difficulties. Other supporters argue that a working knowledge of two languages serves as useful preparation for a student's years after high school. While the goal of bi-lingual education for Mexican-American students has been to end their struggle in English-speaking public schools, some state and city governments across the United States have called for the abolition of these programs. H
Yet, Judge Reagan explicitly disagreed with such a proposition, dismissing the child's ability to "go back and forth from one language to the next without any confusion," while denying the father the right to speak his native language to the child. One particular program that Torres provided for his Denver students was an academic competition with an "ethnic twist. '" Torres highlights the need to educate all students about the roles that all Latinos, including Mexican-Americans, play in American culture; he hopes to illustrate to Mexican-American students that they have a major opportunity to succeed in the United States, thereby inspiring them to achieve. Jimenez calls for the students' cultural and linguistic backgrounds to be viewed as "sources of strength" rather than "deficits to overcome," providing the foundations for proper English acquisition without the relinquishing of ties already in place. Thus, the elimination of the bi-lingual education programs caused the Mexican-American children with minimal English skills to be placed in classrooms dominated by white English-speaking students. These children's lack of success thus could be attributed to embarrassment and eventual discouragement with performance in this type of educational setting. Therefore, many school districts have adopted the attitude that bi-lingual language acquisition techniques do not achieve results. With his program, Bustamante helped Mexican-American students, as well as other students, realize the value of the heritage by concentrating on knowledge of Mexican-American contributions in the United States since the early nineteenth century. On their first day of fourth grade at their new school, the children were unable to respond in English to a question nor was the teacher able to help them find the correct words. Her fears highlight the problems Mexican-American families face, indicating that parents and children do care about their education and are concerned with the language barrier during their time in school. Many school districts have tried to prepare the teachers in bi-lingual schools for such classes. Of over 15,000 Mexican-Americans in the San Diego schools, 25. Thus, Jimenez recognizes the benefit for both students and teachers in working with two languages in the classroom.
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Acceptance Essays
