Bilingual Education Leads to Dropouts

* When I read all the news stories about people who defend bilingual education, most of whom benefit one way or another, either by reaping tax dollars or keeping their organizations in the limelight, I think of the old story about the Tower of Babel.

Does anyone recall? Didn’t God make the people speak in different tongues so they could not communicate with each other and therefore could not cooperate with each other and complete the tower?

Makes you wonder why all these folks want so many children to remain ignorant of the English language when it is to the children’s benefit to learn a language as quickly as possible, as young as possible.

The highest dropout rate is among children with a Spanish-speaking background. Is it because they do not understand what is going on in the classroom where English is used and they are bored?

Total immersion works. I have seen the results. I was in college with an Italian immigrant who arrived in this country at age 13 and did not speak a word of English. At 18 he was a freshman at Rutgers along with the rest of us and spoke without an accent (other than New Jersey, of course). Although anecdotal, this has been repeated time and again by many generations of immigrants.

Surely no one is claiming that this generation of immigrants is slower or less able to learn, are they?

HUGH M. FLYNN

Simi Valley