Rodriquez, Aria

HYPERLINKS: Rodriquez

In Aria, author Rodriquez discusses her struggles as a bilingual student in an american catholic elementary school. Over time she lost the connection with her family and culture from a race to become "Americanized". "After english became my primary language, I no longer knew what words to use in addressing my parents" (37). This quote really made me think about the need for universal bilingual classrooms. Before this article I never really had an opinion of the importance or need for bilingual teachers/ education. I grew up in a town where the majority of people were white. However; most of the kids I went to school with spoke Portuguese at home. Although I never obtained a second language I tried multiple times to. In preschool I was taught colors and numbers in Spanish. I didn't pick up Spanish again until i was in the 7th grade which was considered a privilege... because I was doing well in my english class I then had the option to take Spanish. Those students who had a B- or lower in their english course were not offered Spanish. This experience lead to me a youtube video.  

After watching the video of the children learning in Spanish I asked myself if I would have done better in school if my school taught Portuguese much like the elementary schools shown in the video.  Or maybe if the kids who were not offered Spanish in middle school, If they had maybe been taught in a bilingual classroom- maybe they would have done better in english.