How does writing these rants make me feel about life and other people you ask?
This is how it makes me feel.
Tuesday, February 13th, a Chicago Sun-Times reporter filed a story with the following headline.
Parents protest test in English
I thought to myself, "Self, you have to read this story".
So I did. I am going to go through the story with you and point out just a few things that seem well, out of touch with reality.
Angry Chicago Latino parents threatened Tuesday to keep their kids home on test day next month if state education officials insist on giving students who are still learning English an achievement test in English.
Ok, aren't ALL students by the very definition "still learning English"?
WTF?
Facing threats of federal sanctions, state officials were ordered last October to give the same state test native English speakers take to some 60,000 Illinois public school kids who haven't yet mastered English.
Listen, I know and work with lots of people who grew up in this country and STILL haven't mastered the English language. I have been in technical publications for nearly 20 years and I don't believe that I have MASTERED the English language.
During a news conference Tuesday at the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, about two dozen Latino parents charged that the test mandate is "unfair," "anti-immigrant" and anti-bilingual education."
The test is none of those things. It is merely an ACHIEVEMENT test. These types of tests measure the progress made from year to year.
Jesus Tap Dancing Christ.
Unfair? What's unfair is these "parents" don't seem to care that if they don't force their little snowflakes to learn the language of the land, they are dooming them to a life of poor pay and little chance to fully assimilate into mainstream society. Don't get me wrong, the world needs ditch diggers too, but what if their child was meant to do great things, but wasn't given the chance just because Madre and Padre decided they didn't need to learn English and the child couldn't communicate their ideas.
Anti-bilingual education? No, but it does place emphasis on learning the primary language of the land, English.
In no other country do you see such whining about learning the language of the land. I have friends that have lived all over the world and to a person; they all learned the native language of the country they were living in. Granted they were given some grief for their respective accents, but they were able to do all that was required in daily life.
On the other hand, most developed countries of the world are bilingual by mandate. Nearly all children are required to learn at least one language not native to them. Of all the languages taught in all the world would you like to guess which one is most common? That's right, English. The rest of the world recognizes that due to faster communications and travel, the planet is effectively shrinking. They also recognize that the majority of the world leaders and leading companies require that their minions be proficient in English. Why? Because most of the worlds business is done in English.
Fair doesn't even enter into the equation. If you want fair I suggest you wait until September, and go to Hutchinson Kansas, that's where and when the state fair is held. Otherwise, I suggest you start learning the language.
