Official Language

Okay, you can probably figure out what this rant is about. It builds on my recent post about immigration. Let me set up my frustration before I air it and talk about my solution.

I am a parent who home schools my children. I won’t get into their progress (other than to say it is certainly acceptable - my 10 and 11 year old boys have mastered most Algebra skills and I don’t even know what my daughter is talking about in Trigonometry) or my talent as a teacher (it is difficult to do day in and day out - to keep motivated, when I would rather be doing other things - and I really don’t remember Trig). Suffice it to say I was on the Texas Education Agency website this morning doing preparatory work for the upcoming week (fortunately they don’t read this blog so they don’t know the TAKS test is about to hit them - hee hee hee)

What has me all riled up is that I did this a few years ago (they didn’t do so well on the tests, actually) when I downloaded what I believe are the 2004 tests. This year I went back and was very excited to see that there are now answer keys - which will make my job easier (almost as easy as an overworked, underpaid, under-appreciated teacher with 20-30 kids?) My glee turned to ire as I saw double-listings for many of the tests I wished to download (for reference: the 2006 April tests). The double-listings? The Spanish versions of the test.

Now, I am going to be painted as heartless and cruel by liberals all across the land (and probably some people who claim to be non-liberal) but I do not believe our tests should be administered in Spanish. This country is run in English, and it should remain so. Though it was founded in English, wave upon wave of immigrants moved to this country in droves. We did not change the language to French, or Italian, or Gaelic, nor even did we cave and change the language to British! The immigrants who came here were so thrilled, so honored to be in this country that they took the time and effort to learn the language spoken by its already established inhabitants.

Now, before someone who actually has flames shooting out their eyes and clothing, smoke curling from their Birkenstocks, and an effeminate lisp tries to point out to me that there were other languages spoken here before the pilgrims colonized I will say this: if a group of people who speak, say, Arabic come over here, kick our ass, and conquer us I will either die defending this country or learn to speak Arabic if that becomes the official language.

It actually speaks to the overall point. The question becomes - who is integrating whom? If immigrants are coming here and changing our society, are they immigrating or conquering? How badly do they really want to be here? In my earlier post I pointed out that my impression of previous waves of immigrants is that they so loved this country that they were willing to come here, struggle to learn the language, begin with low-level jobs, work hard, and make something of themselves. They wanted to bring their talents here to make a better United States while the United States made a better them! Coming here, struggling to even communicate, working a low-paying, difficult job was an improvement for them.

If you want to open the borders and let whoever wants to migrate here do so, a stance with which I do not agree anyway, I would make this concession: this kind of stance would stand at least a small chance of working if we preserve that immigrant attitude which suggests it is going to be a possible climb, but it is going to be a tough climb.

You are discarding the sacrifices and struggles made by your own ancestors. Just because you’re not making it - because you were born here and into a society already steps above the struggles those immigrants faced before they got here - doesn’t mean the struggle didn’t happen, and doesn’t make it less important.

You are helping to create an ever-growing segment of our population that cannot understand a speech given by their own politicians. I can just hear the jokes about Americans who can’t understand what President Bush is saying now, but consider this: do you think people taking a TAKS test in Spanish would be better able to understand the smooth semicolons and suave style of President Clinton? Remember: President Bush can actually speak fluent Spanish. Who is going to be in the better position to sway?