Let's teach in English only

By Bill Durney

Oh my... How about if we all speak the same language? This is the United States of America. Our official language is English. Let's learn it.

That makes it hard to teach. And all our students deserve an education.

Ideally, I'd like to see non-English speaking students speaking English BEFORE we start working on other subjects. It's hard to teach math, science, history in multiple languages. Perhaps we need to start a new policy of making sure they can speak English as they start high school. If we need to dedicate the first semester to just English classes, let's do it. It will help ALL students.

My mother's grandparents immigrated to this country from Czechoslovakia a hundred years ago. They arrived here not knowing English. They took the time and made the effort to learn English. They didn't go to the schools and demand their children be taught classes by Czech-speaking teachers. Their children learned English.

This is the United States of America. Our official language is English. If you're going to live here, learn here, work here, you should learn to speak the language.

I know this is something that cannot change overnight. But - it's a direction I want to move in.