9 Mar
2000
9 Mar
'00
8:17 a.m.
On Thu, 9 Mar 2000, Mike Ford wrote:
California has made the correct choice in dropping the
whole english as a
second language program in favor of english immersion. The sooner you learn
english and become proficient, the better students do in general. This
isn't to say that ebonics or any other cultural language doesn't have
merit, but points out the peril of "too much" local control in a polical
setting. This is like offering "creation" as an alternative to
"Darwin",
the problem being once you declare "God created the heavens and earth" you
have branched off from the next 10 years of scientific education to a path
that leads to what?
I don't know...Canada (ok, I'm biased a little being Canadian) allows for
official provincial languages outside of the national official languages,
French and English. It's a neat system, which I think provides a lot of
flexibility for subcultures to preserve their language/history. I'm
definitely not one of the "Speak English or Get Out" crowd.
As far as evolution/creation (oh boy, here we go), I think the problem
with their original idea of teaching both disciplines fell short right at
the place where they had to rectify the problem you mentioned, which
simplifies to the question of where a "safe" re-entry point was in the
continuum of Science for those who went apostate and chose Creationism
over Darwinian Evolution...