The Harvard Political Union, a political discussion group, has taken up the issue, agreeing on the importance of learning English but finding itself divided on how it should be taught, according to Joseph K. Green ’05, the group’s president.
Maria Luisa Parra de Leroux, a teaching assistant in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures who herself emigrated from Mexico and entered bilingual education programs, says she attended a rally to protest the Unz petition.
She says English immersion programs will alienate parents as well as students.
At a recent parent teacher association meeting at her son’s school in Somerville, Parra de Leroux gave a presentation in Spanish at an otherwise English-dominated forum.
That identified her as a Spanish speaker, and afterwards one mother approached her, begging her to translate the rest of the meeting and then cried, saying she hadn’t understood what had gone on.
Parra de Leroux says the educational system will let down students who do not speak English if it bars them from bilingual programs.
“They’re going to get behind and behind and behind and won’t have equal chances to succeed,” she says. “They’re going to get stigmatized.”
—Staff writer Claire A. Pasternack can be reached at cpastern@fas.harvard.edu.