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« Protest Warriors | Main | Is Norman Lear Stupid, or is he Kidding? »

August 27, 2005

Learn Spanish or Be Fired

Is it ever appropriate to require employees to learn a language other than English in order to keep their jobs?

This is the question posed by EdWonk at Education Wonks, regarding a 5-4 vote of the Dallas school board requiring principals to learn Spanish or lose their jobs.

Here is the response by Mauro E. Mujica, Chairman of the Board of U.S. English, Inc (link);

The Dallas school board's extreme approach sends the unmistakable message that English is optional in the area. This is part of a frightening trend where English-speaking Americans are being asked to learn a foreign language, while nothing is expected out of non-English speaking immigrants to America. Instead of forcing their administrators to learn the language of immigrants, the district should open its facilities to programs that teach immigrant parents English.

More accurately, according to NBC5i Dallas,

The school board voted to require principals to learn the primary language spoken by the majority of the students in their school.

So... probably Spanish, but maybe Vietnamese, maybe binary, who knows? Setting aside questions of how moral or legal this is, does the school board have a limit to the number of languages a principal would have to learn if the neighborhood keeps changing? Or if they are transferred from one school to another? This seems pretty tough to enforce.

Two interesting notes from KLTV Dallas;

- The school district will pay for the bilingual training,
- The Dallas Independent School District is about two-thirds Hispanic.

The libertarian in me says you should have the right to demand anything you want out of your employees; they are not entitled to their jobs or the status quo. I'm having trouble coming up with a reason this is wrong.

Wulf Posted by Wulf on August 27, 2005 at 01:55 PM

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Comments

Since moving to the US/Mexico border, my viewpoints on a lot of these issues have changed. If this were to happen here, I would be all for it, but then again, most of the principals are probably of hispanic descent already and are bilingual. As for anyplace that far away from the border? No way. If I were to move to another country (pick any) I'm sure I would be forced to learn their language to get around, and I would expect to. Why we don't take this approach more seriously in this country is beyond me.

Posted by: G-Dawg at August 28, 2005 12:03 PM

Let's say there is a section of Memphis TN that becomes very popular with Central American immigrants. They are flocking there in huge numbers, farther from the border. It gets to the point that the Memphis school district is 30% Hispanic and some individual schools are >50%.
You say that this policy is not as acceptable in Memphis as it would be in Brownsville TX or San Deigo, CA?

Posted by: Wulf at August 28, 2005 3:46 PM

That's exactly what I am saying. Living on the border is not like anywhere else in this country. Consider a 30 mile wide corridor on both sides of the US/Mexico border running from the Gulf to the Pacific. Inside that corridor, it is like nothing else. It's like a whole different country, with the majority of the people bilingual. Is that right? I dunno. But away from the border, where english is the primary languange instead of the shared language, those that choose to live that far in should be making the choice to be forced to learn the english language.

Posted by: G-Dawg at August 30, 2005 5:13 PM

I'm going to have to disagree with you, G-Dawg. I don't think the people anywhere in this country should be forced to learn the English language. At least not by the government. The government is there to serve the people, even the non-English speaking people. And if that means that agents of the government (even those in public education) must learn to adapt to those people, then so be it.

Posted by: Wulf at August 30, 2005 5:19 PM

You are correct by saying it should not be government forced, but it should be socially forced. Like I said in my first reply, if you moved to another country that did not speak english (as primary language) why should you expect all those around you to change their language because you moved there? If the primary language is not english, and you decide to move there (your choice), then you owe it to the people of that country, and yourself, to learn their language.

Posted by: G-Dawg at August 30, 2005 5:38 PM

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