First day and dual immersion thoughts

Keilana got out at 2:30.  She walked up and happily greeted me with a smile while declaring, "I didn't cry the whole time!"  True to Keilana style.  She's always been shy and afraid of new situations.  But she's always loved new situations and been a real trooper about pushing through the fear in order to find the fun.  When we got home she asked me if she could watch Spanish kids shows on Saturday.  She enjoyed recess, excitedly telling me she saw a few other kids she knew while they were outside today.  Her favorite part of the day seemed to be eating lunch in the cafeteria.  She's excited to go back tomorrow and very proud of herself for being a big, brave Kindergartener.  While I was reading to her this afternoon, she asked, "Mom, what's the Spanish word for book?"  Then, "What's the Spanish word for page?".  A few minutes later it was, "Mom, how do you say 'picture' in Spanish?"

I have mixed feelings to some degree about dual immersion programs and Becky asked some questions on my last post that were exactly my own worries about using the program.  Much of what I know is second hand from other parents, as this is my first experience with it.

I think its important to teach young children other languages.  Regardless of the specific language, learning additional languages early in life is a skill and ability too few children have the opportunity to acquire.   The "brain training" secondary languages require is useful for many things, throughout life.  Now, is a dual immersion program in school the best method for doing that?  I don't know.  Its certainly the most efficient way to make a child fluent in a second language, but how high a priority does fluency need to be at 5 or 6 years old?  Being in a community like Lindsay (more than 80% Latino, much of that population speaking primarily or only Spanish), it certainly moves it higher on the priority list than if you live in St. Ignatius, MT, but I still don't know that it needs to be a top concern.

My two primary concerns with a dual immersion program were my child feeling isolated in a community where she is already very noticeably in the minority, and falling behind in all-around academic skills as she focuses hard on trying to figure out what's going on by learning a hugely complex new skill--a second language.  Keilana has two of her friends from Church, who are also white and speak only English--a pretty big distinction from most of their peers in Lindsay--in her class at school.  The fact is, if that weren't the case (notwithstanding its many advantages), I don't know that we'd stick with the program for her.  Both Doug and myself have some pretty strong philosophical reasons why we think its important for our children to learn Spanish, but we both understand that this isn't the only way to do that and neither one of us is so stubborn that we would leave Keilana in if it got to be more of a burden than a blessing for her.  I started Kindergarten 20 years ago this week and I remember how scared I was--at a tiny school where I already knew most of my class, the school itself, the majority of the teachers and was going with my twin brother.  I can only imagine what it would be like for my shy little girl to know no one and understand nothing anyone was saying.  I think that's a bit much and I wouldn't ask that of her.

My other concern is, just starting to read and write and do math, are we going to have to play a lot of catch up since she's spending so much time focused on a foreign language?  I don't know exactly how they run this shindig, and still want some time to actually speak with the teacher.  I have been told they do 90% of the day in Spanish this year, 80% next year, 70% in second grade, etc.  I don't know how that actually breaks down in classroom time, and all the parents I know who have older kids that have gone through the program say that their children are doing just great on their English work and are scoring well during standardized testing.  I'll be anxious to get some time to actually talk to the teacher since that all sounds too goo to be true (maybe they don't do quite as much in Spanish on a daily basis as it sounds like).  What I do know is that I will continue to work with her at home (her reading is really coming along), as I have up to this point, and if it seems like dual immersion is having a negative impact on her overall academic development, we will definitely consider switching her to a regular classroom.  In the mean time, I'll keep y'all posted on how things go this year and any changing feelings.

Anyone who may be inclined to try and start a political debate here with me should probably be warned right up front that I won't engage it.  I will say that I am, on about 90% of issues, staunchly, unabashedly conservative.  I am very much of the opinion that if you choose to come to and live in America, you have a personal responsibility to learn English.  That being said, I have the good fortune of knowing many good people, who have come here legally and contributed in many positive ways to their community, who have struggled to learn English.  They are trying and they do want to and are getting there, but I see the hurdles in their path and am happy to be patient with the realities of that situation.  And, let's face it, we may as well deal with "the realities on the ground", so to speak.  I have been making a more concerted effort myself to learn better Spanish.  In where I have chosen to live, it will make me a better teacher and missionary and thus it becomes my obligation to do so.  I have found that trying to change people's behavior by telling them what to do doesn't generally work too well.  But more often than not if you put in the effort to truly reach out to people, sooner or later they'll start reaching back.