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School alert for parents of bilingual children / Upozorneni pro rodice bilingvnich deti

English-language-learners-1e0au9vIf your child is about to enter kindergarten I have a very important information for you. When you are filling out the application make sure you do NOT put that the child’s first language is the Czech language because then he gets labeled in the bureaucratic world as the so-called “English learner” and he/she will end up in the ELD classes with all the other Hispanic kiddos (in our case here) who don’t speak much English. My daughter’s principal herself said it is really hard to get out of that program and even if you do, they still supervise you for 2 more years. You also get to miss out on all of the electives in high school because they keep you busy with extra English classes.
Now if both parents are Czech and the child does not speak much English, that’s another story. Then the ELD classes would probably be a good idea. But the majority of our children have gone to American pre-schools and they know English so they do not need to be held back.

If you are not careful with this particular issue you may be going through a potentially disastrous experience like my friend did. She is Persian but her husband is American and their son speaks English only. He does go to Persian school once a week and knows a few words but that is about it. When she was filling out the application she made a mistake and put “Farsi” as his first language and it has been a bureaucratic battle for her ever since. Even though she filled out the application again with a correct info (child’s first language is English) the school clerk said that the old application has to be stapled together with the new one. The child still had to take the ESL tests before entering kindergarten and although he passed with flying colors she finds out – a year later – by accident – that he is still labeled as the English learner!

What happened is that the school administrator probably forgot to make the correction in the computer and the snowball of misfortune just keeps rolling. She emailed the principal the other day about what has been going on, the principal forwarded the email to the teacher, the teacher got upset at my friend, thinking that she was complaining about her…..it’s a mess.

The most horrifying thing is that if she did not find out by a pure accident, he would be happily going to ELD classes and the mom would not even know!!! No first grader will be able to tell you what is going on at school, he just follows the orders so one just have to be on top of things. No wonder there is so many ‘helicopter moms’!!!

So do me a favor, parents, write this 100 times as a homework exercise tonight: CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH. CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH. CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH. CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH. CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH. CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH. CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH. CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH. CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH. CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH. CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.CHILD’S FIRST LANGUAGE IS ENGLISH.

 

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3 comments… add one
  • Jana V September 21, 2013, 6:43 am

    That is so true! When I was going to school in Texas we had a form to fill out about what language do you speak at home. We wrote down Czech because that was the truth. The people at school called my parents to change the language to English because otherwise my brother and I would be placed in ESL classes with the Mexican students. We spoke fluent Czech and English, I was even in Honors English classes in high school.

    Personally I wish they would change the wording of the form.

  • Sarka Ozcanli September 23, 2013, 10:04 am

    Dobrý den, my máme syna tento rok v kindergarten, začal před dvěma týdny, takže tato informace přichází poněkud pozdě, ale v dostatečném čase pro rodiče, kteří budou dávat děti do kindergarten příští a následující roky :).
    Nemám ráda vyhrocené názory, takže bych toto téma navrhla spíše jako debatu a poskytla bych více prostoru pro ostatní, aby si vytvořili svůj názor.
    Já na syna mluvím jen česky a manžel turecky. I když chodil do předškolky, tak stále nemá slovní zásobu na stejné úrovni, jako děti mluvící jedním jazykem stejného věku.
    Také jsem slyšela o tom, že jak je jednou dítě označeno jako ELL, tak se to s ním veze. Na druhou stranu jsem zase slyšela, že ELL hodiny jsou poskytovány v malých skupinách, takže se někdo dítěti věnuje intenzivněji, protože jinak je ve třídě hodně dětí a nedostane se jim 1:1.
    Sami jsme volili cestu ELL hodin pro našeho syna, protože navštěvuje školu, kde bude asi tento rok jediný ELL, takže bude hodinu týdně dostávat soukromé hodiny, což si myslím bude prospěšné. Informovala jsem se, že každý rok bude jeho úroveň angličtiny testována a pokud test proběhne úspěšně, tak ukončí ELL program.
    Na naší škole a celkově v našem městě (Portland, OR) se to, že dítě mluví několika jazyky pokládá za přednost, ne jako zaostalost.
    Takže se zase dostávám zpět k tomu zevšeobecňování. Záleží na individuálních případech, na potřebách dítěte a na přístupu školy a dalších faktorech. Třeba i na tom, zda máte chlapce, nebo děvče :).
    Jinak Táňo váš blog moc ráda čtu a děkuji za příspěvky.

  • Tanja September 23, 2013, 1:09 pm

    Ahoj Sarko, jsem moc rada, ze jsi se ozvala. Tohle je presne ten perfektni pripad, kdy je ELL (ne ELD pardon) super vec. To, ze bude mit 1 na 1 privatni hodiny a zdrama je fakt k nezaplaceni. U nas ty deti skonci se skupinou Hispanskych deti, kterych je tu ve skolach vetsina. Spoustu z nich neumi ani slovo anglicky, protoze vetsinou zustanou s maminkami doma a mluvi jen spanelsky. Tudiz nejaka individualni vyuka tu nehrozi, spis je individualnejsi, kdyz dite zustane s anglicky mluvici skupinou, kde jich je mene.

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