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former head of the California Association for Bilingual Education changed his position completely after seeing the results of the first year of English Immersion teaching
The term '''bilingual education''' ought to mean teaching people to become [[bilingual]], but like many other liberal terms, it means the opposite of what it seems to say. Actually "bilingual education", as practiced in California and other states, prolongs the time needed for the children of immigrants to learn English. Instead of providing a [[English Immersion|crash course in English]], so the children can catch up with their English-speaking peers, the state gave them classes in their own (foreign) language. This also had the effect of delaying cultural assimilation, which was probably the main point of the program anyway. When parents discovered that "bilingual education" programs were not helping their children, they voted to eliminate them.<ref>Since Californians first voted for the “English for the Children” initiative that ended that state’s bilingual education programs in 1998, bilingual education programs increasingly are being replaced by [[English Immersion]] teaching. Arizona voted to eliminate bilingual education by an even higher margin in 2000, and Massachusetts did the same in 2002.</ref>
The term '''bilingual education''' ought to mean teaching people to become [[bilingual]], but like many other liberal terms, it means the opposite of what it seems to say. Actually "bilingual education", as practiced in California and other states, prolongs the time needed for the children of immigrants to learn English. Instead of providing a [[English Immersion|crash course in English]], so the children can catch up with their English-speaking peers, the state gave them classes in their own (foreign) language. This also had the effect of delaying cultural assimilation, which was probably the main point of the program anyway. When parents discovered that "bilingual education" programs were not helping their children, they voted to eliminate them.<ref>Since Californians first voted for the “English for the Children” initiative that ended that state’s bilingual education programs in 1998, bilingual education programs increasingly are being replaced by [[English Immersion]] teaching. Arizona voted to eliminate bilingual education by an even higher margin in 2000, and Massachusetts did the same in 2002.</ref>
* In California, Superintendent of Schools Ken Noonan, former head of the California Association for Bilingual Education, changed his position completely after seeing the results of the first year of English Immersion teaching and has become a vocal supporter of English Immersion programs. [http://www.proenglish.org/issues/education/beindex.html What is bilingual education?]
==Notes==
==Notes==