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• Mexican Sesame Street Addresses Swine Flu

  Those of us in the United States are concerned about swine flu. But imagine what it must be like in Mexico, where this epidemic seems to have begun. Plaza Sesamo, the Mexican version of Sesame Street, is not shying away from the issue. They have created four PSAs that began airing on Televisa this morning.   Read More... Posted Apr 29 2009, 05:15 PM by Brett Singer with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: sesame street, mexico, illness, hispanic, Brett Singer, mexican, mexico city, spanish, swine flu, plaza sesamo, televisa

• Only English Here Says Kansas School

  Did I miss some crucial Supreme Court ruling, whereby we took free speech from the mouths of minors? A Kansas court judge has OK'd a Catholic school's decision to ban all non-English speech within its walls.  The way he sees it, telling kids they can't speak in any language but English does not create a hostile learning environment. Parents of three kids in the school district disagree - all Hispanic, they want their kids to have the right to speak Spanish within the walls of the building.  What's wrong with that? Read More... Posted Feb 18 2009, 05:03 PM by JeanneSager with | with 9 comment(s) Filed under: education, racism, schools, language, Jeanne Sager, english, spanish, intolerance, multilingualism, Mandarin, language education

• Say Hola to the Baby

  I wish I could speak a different language, but I’m pretty depressingly monolingual. My grandmother speaks Polish, so I can say good morning, sing the Polish version of Happy Birthday (which sounds like a funeral dirge), ask after your well-being and call you a dirty pig in Polish. I would be an awesome party guest in the motherland. But as world becomes smaller, I think it’s important to gain some facility, if not fluency, in a language other than English.  I’ve fooled around with teaching my kids a little French or Spanish, but as far as real language instruction, there’s not much around here for little kids and like I have the time or patience. For many people, there’s the cultural aspects of maintaining a native language as well. That was the inspiration for.... Read More... Posted Oct 07 2008, 06:06 PM by Amy Kuras with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: spanish, hola baby, foriegn languages, teaching toddlers, second languages

• Do kids do better on tests if they get paid?

  An article in the New York Times last week looked at the practice of paying New York City students if they achieve a certain score on Advanced Placement (AP) exams. The results were "mixed." While there were more 5's (the best score you can get), there was also a "decline in the number of 4’s and 3’s. Three is the minimum passing score." So fewer kids overall actually passed, although some did score higher. Read More... Posted Aug 25 2008, 05:00 PM by Brett Singer with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: school, middle school, high school, money, schools, bad grades, history, math, public school, tests, grades, private school, Brett Singer, larry martinek, mathnasium, spanish, paying for grades, programs, good grades

• Whites Quickly Becoming Minority in U.S.

  Here's another fun demographic fact uncovered by the new Census Bureau report: not only are American whites of European descent having less babies, but Hispanics are having more. With 2.3 kids per mom, Hispanics are having more children than other ethnic group in the U.S. Still, Hispanic women today are having less children than their mothers did, mirroring the nationwide trend of reduced fertility. Read More... Posted Aug 23 2008, 12:18 PM by Hannah Tennant-Moore with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: mothers, moms, birth rate, fertility, population, minority, hispanics, report, english, immigration, bilingual, latinos, u.s. census bureau, choosing not to have children, census, choosing to have children, spanish, whites, official language