Home Hot Topics Articles Directors' Choice Awards About Us / Contact Us Activities & Curriculum Activities for Outcome-Based Learning Arts & Crafts Music for Learning Recommended Reading Sharing Boards: What Do YOU Think? NEWSlink Current National News Conference Calendar Topics In Early Childhood Education Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Education Job Sharing Board State Licensing Requirements Stay Connected! Each month we'll send you an email filled with articles and ideas for your classroom. Subscribe Now Date: 2/4/2007 4:49:00 PM Author: 'no name' Subject: not discriminatory! No, I am not afraid of becoming a 'minority'. Many of my foreign families are considered 'white'. Is is so discouraging that I have families for over three years and the parents can't even understand "No school Monday" or "your child is sick, please come to the school to pick him up." English is America's common language, and for families expecting to stay long-term they should now (as I try to) a few basic common phrases. Just for safety sake! Or to find out how your child is doing in school! I do encourage the families to speak their native language w/their kids, as it is so important as part of their culture. The kids will easily pick up English in two years of preschool. I do have in my room translator books where English is on one side, then flip it over and you have (Korean, Spanish, Arabic). This way I can try to communicate with families that don't speak the language. I do discuss my family's immigration and how we learned to adjust to America. (for a time in America, a fourth of the population was German descent! If we weren't required to speak English, the country would be speaking German!) Sadly, it is the families that refuse to speak English that seem to 'not understand me' when I try a translation. These are the families that have been in America for a while. I just don't get it. My parents were required to now English to get citizenship, and in Germany I did know some English so I picked up the language quickly. You at that time were just expected to learn English to be American. Now, if we press for immigrants to learn the common language we are viewed as being 'intolerant' to their culture. Name: Email: Subject

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