By
Mindy Jones
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Students worried about rights, culture, and education
While many UA students and faculty said there are problems with Arizona's bilingual education system, they agreed Proposition 203 is not the answer.
The roundtable discussion, attended by about 40 members of the University of Arizona community, was sponsored by the Chicano Hispano Student Affairs.
Proposition 203 would amend Arizona law to require that all public courses be taught in English, doing away with bilingual programs. Students in current bilingual programs would be put into an intensive one-year immersion, while continuing to learn academic subjects.
Adalberto Guerrero, retired UA Spanish lecturer, led the bilingual discussion with his negative feelings toward the proposition.
Guerrero opened the discussion by stating that he was disappointed that the primarily-Hispanic audience wasn't speaking Spanish.
"By this time, we should all be able to speak Spanish," he said. "That level of bilingual education is what the system should have brought us to."
The definition of bilingual education, Guerrero added, is a topic which is also under heated debate.
He defined it as a system that teaches students core subjects in their own language while stressing the fluency of both Spanish and English.
"I realize that there are problems with the current way of teaching students," he said. "But this country would be so much more beautiful and powerful if we offered bilingual education in the schools."
Guerrero also stressed that the bilingual education option should only be available to those who want it.
Luis Maldonado, co-chairman of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, agreed that there are problems with the system used for immigrants and other non-English speaking students in Arizona's public schools.
Instead of getting rid of the bilingual programs, as suggested by 203, Maldonado proposed reform.
"There is something definitely wrong with the education system," he said. "It is our job as future teachers to fix the system so that our children benefit from it."
Maldonado also said he is concerned about the rights that would be taken away by the proposition if passed on Nov. 7.
Parents would no longer be able to choose bilingual education for their children, he added, and this would be cultural discrimination.
Francisco Sanchez, a Spanish and Mexican-American studies senior, said he plans on voting for the proposition and replacing it with the current educational plans.
Taking away bilingual education, he added, would not be taking away children's culture as a whole.
"Language is not the primary focus of our culture," he said. "There are many other factors, like food and music, which influence us."
Many audience members argued that the debate was about education and rights, not about cultural freedom.
Elise Alvidrez, an education sophomore, said the focus of learning about culture should be centered in the home and not the school.
"This type of education should be available in the schools, that's why I am voting against the proposition," she said. "However, I don't even think it should be an issue, it should just be an option."
Guerrero fueled the discussion with personal anecdotes about failed programs currently operating in public schools.
Claudia Troncoso, a communication freshman, said she grew up with people who were educated throughout the public school system in English as a Second Language classes.
"I saw the same people in these classes all through my junior high and high school years," she said. "We are doing a great disservice to them."
Although Guerrero clarified that there was a difference between ESL and bilingual education as defined in Proposition 203, he understood her concerns.
"It is not right for a student to be immersed in a new language and be expected to forget all of their cultural baggage," he said. "But, we do need to be able to teach students who don't speak English in the home, that their language is not inferior."
This misconception, Guerrero added, is furthered every time universities, including the UA, fail to support bilingual teaching.
The products of these failed teaching environments, Maldonado said, are voting for proposition 203.
"When you really think about it, whose responsibility is it to teach these kids about their culture," Sanchez said. "Ultimately it is the parents, not the schools."
