Today I was listening to the iPod with my daughter and the classic Schoolhouse Rock song, Great American Melting Pot came on. Back in the day when I was in school, we lived in a melting pot. All cultures joined in to create the American experience, and there was a certain pride in becoming an American. Today though, it seems that that has changed. Rather than becoming a part of our society we have created an environment where people do not need to learn the language, or culture. Instead they import their own culture and fight to preserve it. I respect other cultures, but I also recognize that you become a part of the culture in which you inhabit. When we setup laws forcing Spanish, French, German, signs and education in a country where virtually everyone speaks English, we are creating a generation of second class citizens. How can you expect a child who lives in a group that speaks 100% a language that is not of the land in which they inhabit to succeed when they need English? Too often I see these fights in the news, like when the sub place in Philly refused to serve people who could not speak enough English to order their food and got sued. I should have known that there were going to be problems when I was leaving high school and they stopped calling it the Melting Pot and instead a Salad Bowl where cultures exists side by side, but never blend and live in isolated worlds.
So now we hear that schools should teach in Spanish as well as English, which doesn't help. ESOL (english as a secondary language) is great, lets help people to be part of our culture or melting pot rather than outsiders who can only get jobs mowing lawns or cleaning houses because they can't speak enough English to fill out a job application. Don't pander to people who want to be taught in their native tongue. Do not allow these people to hurt themselves and become second class citizens.
-Uncle Walter
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