My Reflection about Richards Experience in School

          In the United States everybody has a fair chance in education. That includes families who do not have much money and families who's first language is not english. In the case of Richard, english was not his first language Spanish was. Of course this kid is going to have trouble in school when the only language they speak is English and they do not have a program where they can help the kid. Richard said that he was only able to understand "some fifty stray English words." His parents were a little better but they still struggled speaking the new language. A couple years later a new program in the school called Bilingual Education was put into place to help students who do not know how to speak English. Richard did not like that because he felt like they were trying to take away the language he spoke with his family. I would get really angry as well if I felt like they were trying to take away the language I speak with my family. The language that they speak could be the only thing they have left that they brought with them when they moved from their home country to an unfamiliar country. When they moved into their new house they lived right next to the white people and their huge housed and Richards mom said that they will never be able to live in a house like that. That is really sad because Richards family is probably working twice as hard as that "white" person who has the huge house and Richard and his family will not be able to afford that kind of house. That really makes me upset because I believe if you work really hard you should get rewards and the Rodriguez family will never get that.

       This video shows that students are being taught Spanish for half the day and English half of the day. Some say that it does help the children who speak Spanish learn when the class is in Spanish but when the other half of the day is in English they do not really want to learn anymore. Is it because the children are thinking the teachers are trying to take their language away like Richard thought when he was in school? The parents of the children who speak English love the idea that their children are learning Spanish. Some states are making it a low that everybody has to speak English. what is going to happen to these children who cannot speak English? That makes me really angry because those families who cannot speak English probably moved here from another country to have a better life for their children but that is being taken away from them just because they need to learn to speak the language which they are willing to do. Why should we take that privilege away from them just because they speak another language? Maybe we should be the ones who learn how to speak Spanish, French, or Chinese.