To the Editor:
As a retired teacher, I read with great interest a recent newspaper article on teaching immigrant students English. English as a second language to many is not new in the U.S.
Problems with immigrants not speaking English go back hundreds of years. In the early 1900s, it was so large of a problem that urban schools opened up at night to teach immigrants English. Now, in New Jersey, we have a similar problem.
There are 155 language groups in New Jersey. One of eight households speak English at “a not so well “level. There are students who come to school not speaking any English. Some also have strong cultural family resistance to change. This makes it difficult to educate them.
I had one student who came straight from China without any English skills. I had another whose family moved here from China before she was born. I asked her if she would help the new student. She had to talk to her parents who said “no” because their group was different than the other student. This was only one incident, but it spoke volumes.
The newer student was dropped down a grade level and put in the “English as a second language program” with a teacher who didn’t speak his native Chinese. Herein lies the problem. How do schools educate such students and break down the institutional tower of Babel? It will cost big money for teacher translators, but the money has to be raised and spent.
– JOE MURPHY
Town Bank
