Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary
The central figure of Laura Simons film is Mayra, a 5-th grade student from the high-poverty school in Los Angeles. About 90 percent of the students enrolled in this school are from Central America and Mexico, speaking more than 30 different languages and dialects.
Mayra is the daughter of undocumented parents from El Salvador and naturally fears the implications of Californias Proposition 187, denying public education and health care for illegal immigrants.
There is no denying the importance of the fact, that Mayra wants to become a fully enfranchised citizen of the United States When I grow up Im going to be a person who fights for this country. I am going to be an important person. Im going to a good college... Am going to fight for people... I want them to come to me and say, Thank you. I want to be a lawyer. (Fear and Learning,1997)
Simon, who is simultaneously a teacher in Hoover and a legal immigrant from Mexico, vividly describes the implications of this Prop. 187 for such students as Mayra. Putting different stories of similar students, she shows the problems they meet, including lack of rights, information, awareness and undefined prospects for the future (August and Hakuta, 1997).
Simon shows that their position in elementary schools is difficult, because it is often the institutional racism and lack of attention to their problems, which precludes them from getting adequate knowledge of written language and good education in general.
One of the basic questions, posed by Simon may be formulated as follows why should the immigrant children be the hostages of the general immigration debate in the United States, taken the fact that for them the detrimental effect and damaged life-experience is the most likely consequence The answer Simon proposes require democratizing public debate on immigrant students immigration making it more objective and effective.
The unique character of Simons film may be understood as combining teachers and students perspective on the discussed matter. Giving a voice for students, whom Simon deeply respects, she shows that they should participate in public debates to guarantee the democratic nature of education for immigrants.
Simon rightly supposes that in certain important respects students have better understanding of problems that affect them, than adults and that is why their voice should be heard. It should be noted that Fear and Learning raises the issues, which have wide social significance and provide a tremendous cover of problems, connected with immigrants education, including the issues of race, language, ethnicity, socio-economic status and class and intersections of multiple identities (Glenn and Jong, 42).
Such dynamic understanding of education is particularly important, taken into consideration the fact that as, Darling-Hammond contends access to knowledge and inequality are closely interconnected (Darling-Hammon, 1995). Moreover, in the case of immigrants, described in film, the problem of social inequality is deteriorated by the lack of legal rights and different types of legal prosecutions. To sum it up, Simons film has a great significance in terms of multicultural education, immigration legislation and legislation, affecting immigrant students with limited proficiency in English. Its audience may be even wider, taken into consideration the fact that the problems it raises lie in the intersection of public administration, cultural studies, pedagogy and political science disciplines (August and Hakuta, 87).
Chapter 89 of Commissioners Rules Concerning State Plan for Educating Limited English Proficient Students Summary
The discussed legislation provides limited English proficient students with the possibility of bilingual education. All public schools in all districts should track these students and enroll them on corresponding courses and programs. Moreover, the discussed documents make teachers and supervisors responsible for the effectiveness of such courses.
The reviewed plan provides possibility of exception from the bilingual programs in certain cases when the number of students with ESL is limited, teachers do not have necessary preparation etc. However, each school district has to apply for such an exception and correspondingly wait for negative or positive answer.
According to the Plan, A district that is unable to provide an English as a second language program as required because of an insufficient number of certified teachers shall request from the commissioner of education a waiver of the certification requirements for each teacher who will provide instruction in English as a second language for limited English proficient students. (Commissioners Rules, 3).
The plan also initiates the courses for district teachers to enhance their level of necessary course proficiency. In this view, each district should provide the list of teacher not prepared for the program, the description and schedule of training programs, designed to enhance their capacities (Commissioners Rules, 4).
As far as the content of the programme is concerned, each student should be provided with the customized course, meeting the existing level of hisher English proficiency. The interests and rights of each student should be properly guaranteed to achieve educational results. The courses instructions should be provided in a students native language. It should be noted that the plan presupposes considering the issues of a students native country history, culture and traditions in the preparation and organization of the course. Moreover, the discussed course should be a part of a general educational program including such disciplines as mathematics, history, natural sciences etc. English education should focus on developing several crucial types of English proficiency including reading, writing, composition, comprehension and oral speech.
According to the discussed plan, students with limited English proficiency should be gradually equalized in educational requirements with proficient English students, based on the level of their performance and success. In some subjects, where the knowledge of English is less important, the immigrant students should pass the same educational programs as proficient language speakers In subjects such as art, music, and physical education, the limited English proficient students shall participate with their English-speaking peers in regular classes provided in the subjects. (Commissioners Rules, 7).
The Plan also allows students with limited English proficiency to participate in extracurricular activities in the same programs, as the students with good knowledge of English.
According to the Plan, the control over English proficiency courses should be properly organized in the view of tracking the success of students. The evaluation tests and commissions should be formed in each school district and the file for each student should be created to track hisher progress. The proficiency in students native language should be also permanently measured.
To sum it up, the discussed Plan provides a good framework for developing English proficiency in immigrant students. The realization of this plan allows overcoming the educational, linguistic and cultural problems of immigrant students, described in Simsons film. However, the control over realization and implementation of the discussed framework is needed to guarantee equal access of each immigrant student to the programme and prevention of possible discrimination in public schools.
In the same vein, Adler analyzing the historical development of programs for English learners claimed that there existed wide variety of approaches and techniques, presupposing different levels of English proficiency (Adler, 2005). The efficiency of programs realization depended on the level of teachers proficiency, awareness of students problems and desire to help. This account should be taken into consideration in implementation of any plan.
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