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I heard on the radio earlier this week that a report on some national study had been released, stating that California was one of the “dumbest” states in the union. In fact, we were rated only higher than Mississippi, Nevada and Arizona in the “dumb” category. The study had compared the courses taken by the nation’s high school students and rated the quality of the courses in their ability to prepare graduating high school students to compete in college classrooms. California rated 47th overall, which means that graduating high school seniors in 46 other states are better prepared, based on the courses they took in high school, to compete on the college level. |
In my school district, which was on the U.S.-Mexican border, we welcomed many children of immigrants, many of which didn’t speak a lick of English when they arrived on campus. However, instead of diluting the educational experience for everyone by trying to teach courses such as biology, algebra and science in two languages, the non-English speaking students were placed in a so-called English Immersion program where for the first year in our American school, all they were taught was to read, write and speak English. Then, in their second year, they would enter the regular classes that were taught exclusively in English. This was successful, and for many years our high school lead the nation in the highest percentage of students with Hispanic surnames who were attending college.
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