Britt's Blog

While reading Britt’s Blog I realized that much of the things her topic was dealing with were similar to the issues that I was exploring in my own blog. This blog’s focus is on bilingual education and how it is important for both the Hispanic immigrants, as well as for the Americans. In my blog I focused on immigrant racism and this focuses on one specific immigrant group and what they have to deal with when living in this Country. It helps to identify the challenges that many immigrants face when they do not know English. In the short story I read the woman did not know the language and it was extremely clear that it was preventing her from the being able to succeed in the United States. “The workers were under the impression that they would be making more money than they were in Mexico, so they came with their families for the chance of a better life. However, the bracero contracts were in English, and the workers signed them without fully understanding their rights and the conditions of their employment.” When I think of what an immigrant expects when coming to America, this is the idea that I think of: that they will be able to have a better life. However as I have done my research and read this presentation I have come to the conclusion that those dreams do not translate to actual life. One just cannot move to the United States and think that things will automatically be better for them. Not knowing the language of the new place can make it very difficult to succeed. One other idea that I thought about in my own blog was that once a person is accepted into America then they should also be accepted into the society as well. This blog shows that to gain this acceptance the Hispanics used the court system to get what they desired. The children of immigrants were not doing well in school or being treated equally, just because they did not know English. The judge’s ruling made it so these children would be able to receive a better education, one where they would be able to learn the language.

Something that surprised me was the fact that there are schools for American children to come and be immersed in another language and culture. Brittany was using a video to try and prove that a bilingual education is not just beneficial for immigrants, but for Americans as well. Bilingual education works to improve: “verbal and linguistic abilities reasoning concept formation, the ability to analyze and talk about language, and control language processing.” All of these things are useful for any human being to survive in this diverse world. I am glad that these kinds of schools exist because it demonstrates that Americans are willing to accept the immigrants and their culture. When I was researching mostly saw the opposite, people always trying to make things harder for immigrants.

This blog helped to reinforce my beliefs about how the United States needs to do what is best for its entire people. To help the Hispanics be able to prosper in America, we need to help them to learn our language. By helping them we will also be helping ourselves in the long run. If they now English they can do better, which will help the economy. It will also help the United States to stay a diverse country, or the melting pot as it is commonly referred as.