Press 1 for Politically Incorrect, Please

My sister was shopping for birthday presents for our 5-year-old twin cousins the other day. She got a couple of books at Borders, some sidewalk chalk, and stickers... things any 5-year-old would love. When she arrived home, though, she realized that Lauren's book was in Spanish. We weren't even aware that they were selling children's books in northeast Ohio in Spanish. This then begged the question, "Why are they selling children's books in Spanish at all?" The answer to this question may seem obvious: because there is a growing Hispanic population, even in northeast Ohio, and these families need to read to their children.

Give me a break.

There is no better time than between ages 3-5 to teach young children how to learn and speak a language. Study after study shows that children who are read to on a regular basis succeed in life. Why then are we reading to children in a language other than our official language of English? If the goal of our immigration policy is to promote and facilitate assimilation, I can think of no better strategy than to read to young Hispanic children in English! The reality is this: reading to them in Spanish is stunting their intellectual growth in America.

Similarly, I'm sick and tired of hearing about how our children ought to learn another language. Barack Obama and his type often advocate this for the purposes of convincing the rest of the world to like us. Don't get me wrong, learning additional languages is important from an intellectual standpoint, and for cultural enrichment. But the language of world success is English. Rather than advocating that our intelligent children learn anther language, how about we promote our less-educated children actually learning English, both to speak coherently and to write intelligently?

I realized that I crossed the politically correct boundary, but it's time that this be not only stated, but enacted as official policy.

rg

9/1/08