Jonathan Loomis
September 14, 1998
Schools and Society
Professor Laughlin
Chapter 4 Review
The most striking piece of new information for me was the set of facts concerning the demographics in the United States today, especially those concerning young people. The concept that "white" was dying as the majority ethnic group in the United States is nothing new to me, but what impressed me the most was the great gap between what most educators view as the social ideal, and what is the social reality. For example, the fact that two in every five Latino children lives in poverty, or that nearly half of these children do not complete school, is new to me. The fact that one in every twenty students carries a gun to school, that the typical student has had sex by the age of sixteen, and that the rise of AIDS cases in the U.S. grew 70% between 1990 and 1992 are all new facts to me. I question whether or not our teachers are teaching to the model classroom, or the real classroom of students lain out before them.
I strongly disagree with the concept that exceptional students will learn better if they are taken out of the classroom for even periods of the day. From my own experience, I feel that students do best when programs are tailored to their needs within the classroom setting. If small groups are desired for remedial or advanced students I feel that it is best to integrate other students into the small groups and to constantly be changing the makeup of the groups so that certain students are not singled out as advanced or behind.
The question I have concerning this material really concerns the recent developments in the field of bilingual education. What are the consequences of the dismantling of bilingual education in California? How do the successes in the programs there compare to those of the two-language immersion programs such as the one in San Diego?