“I arrived in New York at the age of 10 as an immigrant from Europe. I still remember my father, as we stood in New York waiting for our final papers, solemnly instructing me and my brother in our native tongue. ‘From today on, our family will be American, and English will be our language. You will go to an American school, learn English as fast as you can, and come home and teach it to your parents.'”
That’s what a woman told me last week who speaks without a trace of an accent, although she didn’t know a word of English when she arrived in our country. She thanks her public school teacher who taught her to speak, read and write flawless English.
That story could be told by millions of immigrants. English was the vehicle that enabled them to become Americans. Being forced to learn English in the public schools was the escalator that enabled them, starting with only the clothes on their backs, to rise to success in education, business and professions.
It never occurred to them to hire a lawyer and demand their “right” to be educated in their native language. They would have thought that disloyal to their adopted country, and it certainly would have been self-defeating of their own career aspirations.
About 20 years ago, we woke up to the fact that we have a great many Spanish-speaking children in the schools. So our nation, in its generosity, decided to give them special help, above and beyond what had been provided to other immigrants.
The plan was called Bilingual Education. The purpose was to give immigrant children special help in learning English. But Bilingual Education created its own bureaucracy with its army of employees who could use part of their tax-paid salaries to lobby to perpetuate and expand their own turf.
Instead of mainstreaming the Hispanics, it is leading them into a cultural/linguistic apartheid. It’s a device to provide jobs to Spanish-speaking school personnel at the price of keeping Hispanic children effectively segregated, unable to communicate in the language of education, commerce, industry, government, and influence in America. A March 1985 report to Congress showed that students enrolled in Bilingual Education programs often do not reach English proficiency even after seven years.
While the United States has been greatly enriched by ethnic, religious and cultural diversity, our common English language ranks with our “common market” of 50 states as the twin instruments which forged our national strength, unity, and stability. Most of our immigrants readily admit that learning English is their best ticket to educational, business, professional and social opportunity.
Sam Hayakawa, former U.S. Senator from California, thinks we have enough problems as a nation without having to talk to each other through an interpreter. He believes that English is the main unifying force of the American people and is threatened by prolonged Bilingual Education in public schools.
So he has proposed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to declare English the official language of the United States. The effect would be to restore English-only ballots and to limit Bilingual Education to a transitional role.
In the present Congress, the English Language Amendment is sponsored by Rep. Norman Shumway (R-CA). It is accompanied by a concurrent resolution which explains that the “common language, English, fosters harmony among our people, promotes political stability, permits the interchange of ideas, encourages societal accord, and unites us as a people committed to freedom and equality.”
The English Language Amendment has been endorsed by the Polish American Congress, the Chinese American Civic Council, the National Confederation of American Ethnic Groups, and 43 other ethnic organizations.
Canada came close to civil war in the 1970s because of the problems raised by its bilingualism. Canada’s language problem was the accident of history, but there is no reason for the United States to walk into the same trap with our eyes open. The U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address did not go out in a second language.
This issue calls for blunt talking and debate. A good place to start is with Theodore Roosevelt’s words: “We have room for but one language here and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding house.”
