Get Schooled

By JustMe

October 6, 2006 12:18 PM | Link to this

The latino students are no different that other subgroups. Some sit with their latino friends and some mix with the population.

Where many latino students struggle in is the language. Often the parents speak no English and therefore cannot help with the school work much less communicate with most teachers. This does lead to frustration on the part of the student, the parents, and the teachers.

Some latino students do not see a high school diploma as possible or even sometimes a worthwhile goal. They see their parents working at a carpet mill or in agriculture and feel that this is their destiny and so they do not need an education for that. They do not see that many more doors will open for them with an education - mostly because they have not been exposed to those possibilities.

I teach high school and unfortunately, it seems that the latino students that I see are already resolved to their way of thinking. Very little of what I do or say makes a difference in their motivation.

By MMM

October 6, 2006 12:54 PM | Link to this

Patti, I think you run the most civil blog I’ve seen.

On the Latino question, Latino’s don’t stand out at the International Community School. Native speakers of Spanish are fewer in number than the Bosinian, Arabic, French, Farsi, and probably one or two other groups. The couple of kids from spanish speaking countries do as well, if not better than many of the refugee kids because most of them have had some amount a schooling and professional parents, whereas the refugee population is all over the map in the quality of education they got in the camps and their cultural background.

Since our country started, the newest mmigrant group has always started “at the bottom” if it is of any size. Since many of our public schools remain segragated by affluence (because our building patterns are), those that are last in get pushed down by those who are “next to last”. At the same time, America does not have one single set of values—but if the only Americans that the Hispanic children interact with are those who have the values that typically go along with multigenerational poverty—then those children will be torn between the familie’s original values and the only “American” culture they see.

One of the most important aspect of ICS’s approach—but that is not very visiable on a photo is that there are some very well educated and committeed American families (both Black and White) who model the kinds of middle class behavior that leads to sucess in our society. The lack of ANY clearly dominant group forces everyone to figure out what works best—but the active advocacy, availabity and example of a number of successful American families provides advice and a pathway for the immigrants to understand and adopt behaviors that will lead to sucess.

By DeKalb teacher

October 6, 2006 12:55 PM | Link to this

I teach at a majority Latino school and most of the students are great. They work hard and are respectful to teachers, sadly more so than our American born kids. The language barrier presents a challenge when trying to communicate with parents. We used to have a translation line which was wonderful. Unfortunately, DeKalb has limited teachers’ access to it, and it’s almost impossible to use this year.

I disagree with the comment that these kids aren’t motivated to work for a career beyond agriculture and carpet mills. Many of our graduates go on to college. Most of those students are the first ones in their families to attend college.

By V for Vendetta

October 6, 2006 01:13 PM | Link to this

This is a problem. The language barrier is one headache along with discipline issues and cultural values. We are having some major problems with this at my high school. There is more hispanic gang activity, WAY more kids getting pregnant, and a large increase in the ESOL enrollment.

Some of these challenges can be met in a reasonable manner. I have a real problem with the negative aspects of having such a large cultural group in the school (I’m trying very hard to keep this from digressing into an immigration rant). At any given time, almost all the girls on homebound for pregnancy are hispanic. The majority of the gang-related activity at my school is rooted in the hispanic community. This is very frustrating.

Let me explain. I attended my high school as a student. I remember how it used to be. A lot of people might perceive that to be some sort of veiled racist comment, but it’s not. What I’m talking about are the aforementioned problems. Gang activity was unheard of, teen pregnancy was a scandalous and rare event, and ESOL did not even exist in its present form. What happened?

Blaming it all on the hispanic boom would seem like an easy eay out — a sort of racial cop out. Still, the statistics are staggering, and it is hard to pin point anything more significant in my school’s history that could have contributed to these changes. I wish I could be more positive about the situation, but I cant. I loved my school as a student and I feel lucky to have been educated in the area I grew up in. I couldn’t say the same thing today. The sad thing is, many people do not even realize my school has problems on the scale that we do because, as I always say, I TEACH AT ONE OF THE “GOOD” SCHOOLS!

By Filster

October 6, 2006 01:38 PM | Link to this

My daughters attend an elementary school in Forsyth county where the latino population is right around 1/3 of the student body. The fact that 1/3 of the student body requires, in most cases, ESOL traning, detracts from the quality of education able to be offered to the other 2/3. Sorry, you just can’t convince me that have 1/3 of the students in virtually every class either not speak English, or not be fluent in it enough to comprehend what is being taught, does not detract from the quality of education being offered. Now I do not fault anyone for wanting a better life for their family, and the debate on immigration aside, what also concerns me is that as so many of the students are from families which are not here legally, that means that their parents are not paying the property taxes, income taxes, etc. that I do, part of which goes to provide education. So essentially, they are riding on my nickel, and my daughters are getting short-changed. For anyone who thinks I’m advocating removing all immigrant children from our schools, I’m not. I’m taking this opportunity to advocate serious consideration of a flat tax, i.e., a consumption tax. The issue of who’s here legally, who pays taxes, and so on is far too braod to be handled in this blog, but folks, everyone, legal or not, is a consumer. If our taxes are garnered via what we buy, then everyone is contributing to the pool and then everyone, legal or not,is helping pay for the educational process. And, it would also allow us to receover some of the billions of dollars that leaves this country to go overseas (how many know that money sent back home to Mexico from those inthe U.S. is the 2d or 3d largest input of capital into the Mexican economy? How much of that would be recovered via a consumption tax). There. I said my peace. Hispanics kids have good and bad, just like white kids, black kids, and son on. It’s something we have to accept and deal with, preferably ona case-by-case basis. But only if you’re helping pay for it.

By twelveyearold

October 6, 2006 01:58 PM | Link to this

patti, you suck. trying to limit what people say is even more of an open invitation. terrible, just terrible.

By Janine

October 6, 2006 02:02 PM | Link to this

The HIspanic student population grew from about 10 % to about 80% during the last 15 years of my teaching career [which just ended last year].

The teachers adjusted from year to year, and tried to meet the challenges that came with this growth. THere was very little turnover of teachers. THey came to love the students and worked many long hours planning for them..

As with other problems we have discussed on this blog, the major roadblock encountered was not the students nor their culture, nor their gangs, nor their language difficulties,nor their parents….,* but the county office administrators,and later the NCLB bureaucrats who were making decisions for students about whom they knew NOTHING. * They hadn’t spent one day it the classroom with these students, nor one minute brainstorming about the best way to get to these students as the teachers had done every day. Yet they , with blatant disregard and disrespect for the teachers who were working with these students every day, proceeded to choose programs for the teachers to implement. Did they ask for suggestions from the stake holders, from the interested parties ??? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Did they even look to see what kind of progress these students had made by comparing their scores from year to year..OF COURSE NOT…

The final insult came at the end of the 2006 school year when, due to the dedication and hard work of the teachers, they finally made the NCLB AYP for the first time. **Dekalb FIRED all of the teachers who had experience working with these students and replaced them with teachers who, though some of them were experienced, had little experience working with Hispanic students.

By Rita

October 6, 2006 02:18 PM | Link to this

The Hispanic population in my middle school is the majority. I love working with these students. I don’t think I could ever teach in a school where all the students speak English. I won’t lie it is tough. The “I get it” moments are few and far between, but so meaningful when they do occur. Unfortunately the government thinks that my students should be on grade level and they are not, they learn and I have every expectation that many will graduate high school and even go to college or a trade school. But the level at which they come to us, many having little or no formal education, is so varied. There is no possible way that they can pass a test given in English, and for that we are heavily penalized. One big obstacle my students face is the lack of English language role models. Because we have so many Hispanic and Asian students there are plenty of students to talk to in their native language. This makes it take longer to acquire the academic English necessary to pass the federal/state mandated tests. Also, many of their parents do not speak English and are not motivated/able, for whatever reason, to do so. Many of my 6th grade students end up “running the household” because of this. But again I will say these are the greatest students to work with.

By AM

October 6, 2006 02:22 PM | Link to this

If we have to be civil then don’t get me started. ENFORCE THE EXISTING IMMIGRATION LAWS - THAT WILL DO IT!

By Janis Ian

October 6, 2006 02:25 PM | Link to this

Patti, Patti, Patti, Why even bother with allowing outsiders to post on your blog? Why not just allow your pets to post and be done with it? Or why not just state what you want people to write and let your pets write it? Patti, Patti, Patti, why are you so afraid to have any meaningful exchange on your blog? You come up with some banal topics and post noxious pseudoput-downs when you disagree with someone or extremely sugar-dripping accolades when one of your pets posts something. Let’s see….hmmmm…..Patti likes warm stories and comments about non-white people and curricula that’s student-centered rather than content-oriented. The horror that someone would think otherwise, much less post otherwise.

Keep the AJC accountable!

By KA

October 6, 2006 03:15 PM | Link to this

Janine, I agree with your comments about adminstrators and NCLB. Time for a teacher revolution to take back your classrooms and show the PC admins and the federal gov’t the door. One size does not fit all students.

Janis Ian, Take two aspirin and some deep cleansing breaths. You need to chill.

By singlemom

October 6, 2006 03:25 PM | Link to this

All I can say is I am happy my daughter is almost out of school. Two more years after this one. There doesn’t seem to be a hispanic problem at her high school that I am aware of, but there are bound to be many problems in the years to come.
Unfortunately our government is not going to do anything about this immigration problem. There is absolutely nothing we can do about this problem. It isn’t going away and nothing is going to change. This immigration problem will continue to burden our schools, hospitals, etc. and we really have no choice but to accept this. We will all be forced to speak spanish within the next 10 years.

By catlady

October 6, 2006 03:26 PM | Link to this

I have been teaching ESOL for 6 years now. Before that I taught the children who were learning English in regular classrooms. The students I teach (elementary age) are almost without exception terrific folks. They are almost all hardworking, polite students who want to do well, as do their parents. The ones we have trouble with are the ones who have been here the longest and have “adopted” American ways. Sad, but true. Entitlement mentality, poor behavior, and all.

Our students struggle to understand the English that they decode. All our students, not just the ESOLs. Many of our “native” students would not pass out of ESOL class if they had to take the tests. Sad, but true.

Those who have the most trouble achieving quickly in our county are those from Guatemala. Their fathers can rarely read Spanish. Their mothers have never gone to school. The parents are not very interested in learning English. The children come with no literacy skills. And they come from families with many, many children to divide the limited resources their parents have (time, money). So saying, their parents want, no, NEED them to do well so they can serve as a buffer between the family and the rest of Anglo society. Our children of Mexican parents seem to fare better, as their parents are frequently better educated and more assimilated, at least in our area.

I have quarterly meetings in the evening for the parents which are very well attended. On a bad night, we out-pull the PTA by 700%. Daddies, especially, are involved in making decisions about their children. I like that.

I agree with other posters: the state and feds have no clue about teaching these kids, yet they blithely pass on idiotic rules and regulations that make teaching them 1000% more difficult. Now we are moving toward total inclusion instead of pull out help. Hahahaha! 3 ring circus (special ed, regular ed, and esol) here we come!

I’d like to see people who have actually done the work make the rules at every level, rather than pencil pushers, bean counters, and politicians.

This is my last year to do this; it is eating my heart up after 33 productive years. I have learned a lot from my Latino students.

By esol

October 6, 2006 03:42 PM | Link to this

I teach ESOL in the high school to a predominantly Hispanic population and I love teaching this population group.

Hispanic students are extremely respectful. They are kind and loyal. They value education and work hard.

Despite the language barrier, the Hispanic population has a very strong work ethic and is extremely well behaved. Most Hispanic students come from two parent homes and have strong family values. Almost all of my students have jobs after school and on the weekends. They have excellent time management skills.

My students seem to have less emotional baggage than the regular education students and nationwide, research shows that Hispanic students are outperforming African American students.

It takes several years for ESOL students to excel in English and they are hindered by the myriad of tests required to graduate from high school. As a result, we focus primarily on standardized test preparation.

Schools that have high diversity have lower success rates in meeting AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) standards. Schools that are more diverse are hindered when it comes to no child left behind as ESOL, special ed, and other sub groups are expected to test on grade level.

Socially, Hispanic students are very comfortable. They have a large peer group; in fact, the largest club at our school is our Hispanic Club.

The greatest challenge I see in the Hispanic population is low graduation rates and a low percentage of students who attend college. Students do not have role models to follow into the collegiate world and are daunted by tuition payments so they often do not apply.

In high school, Hispanic students will attend four and often five years without passing the graduation tests. They leave without a diploma. It is truly our greatest challenge.

By Janine

October 6, 2006 03:48 PM | Link to this

Catlady ONe of my good friends who is an ESOL teacher left last year after doing a year of ESOL inclusion. {Both she and I had thought we would only retire when they had to roll us out on a stretcher.} But , the bureaucratic insanity won out. She agreed with you, the inclusion was a 3 ring circus conceived by morons. She had students who spoke no ENglish in the class with regular and advanced students. The situation was horrible for all them. Filster*, you are so right. There is no way for such a class to progress normally. Every student loses…

By anti

October 6, 2006 04:01 PM | Link to this

who cares if they learn to speak the language or get a diploma from a Georgia school, the only thing they need to know how to say to have a better life than they had in Mexico is “hot plate”.

By crystal

October 6, 2006 04:19 PM | Link to this

Why are we spending our time and tax dollars teaching these kids English in the first place? How did that responsibility fall into the school’s lap? It should be the parents responsibility to find a tutor to teach their kids English. Then, when they have mastered the basics they can join the rest of the student population.

By hispanic graduate

October 6, 2006 04:43 PM | Link to this

Hey, I graduated high school in 2004 and I have learned the english language extyremly well. I came to the US in 1991 when schools did not have an ESOL program. For those of you that do not what that is, it is a program for students with a second language. Well I belive it is great to try and help these students but for me it was better that there wasnt a program. I had to learn the language all on my own and that helped the best. It helped the best because I was upset that no one understood me that it made me try harder to learn so I could get understood.

By erica

October 6, 2006 05:02 PM | Link to this

Janine - Yep, who was the idiot that thought up the idea that kids who don’t speak English, kids with an IQ of about 75, kids with an IQ of 100, and kids with IQs of 130 or better can all learn in the same classroom?

It’s completely crazy. Everyone does suffer greatly - but doesn’t it look nice on paper? Who thinks it’s good for a low achieving kids’s self esteem to have another high achieving peer having to teach them the same thing over and over again. In an inclusion classroom, the bright kids spend way too much time teaching the slow kids.

I can’t think of anything that would make a kid feel worse. “I’m so stupid that another nine-year-old can teach me.”

What makes it even worse is that typically the scenario is that a white kid is tutoring a black or hispanic kid in class. Not that one race is smarter than the other… but that just happens to be the way things tend to shake out much of the time here.

Yep, let’s go ahead and shove that achievement gap right down their throats by having the smart white kids teach the stupid minorities….!!! Puleeze!

My child used to not see any difference between races. Now he has asked me repeatedly why black/hispanic kids are so stupid because he has to tutor them all the time. I’m constantly having to reeducate him, but it gets harder to make him believe me each year when stereotypes are shoved down his throat each day at school.

Yep… gotta love inclusion! Between that and NCLB I don’t think that anyone could come up with a better scheme to completely destroy public education.

By Jim

October 6, 2006 05:56 PM | Link to this

Why is it my responsibility to pay property and other taxes to educate children of illegals? The people and businesses who use the services of illegals should be doing the paying.

By Mom of Two

October 6, 2006 06:08 PM | Link to this

I had about 10 paragraphs written out and just deleted it all when I realized it can all be summed up to say that the American taxpayers and children are getting royally screwed. I’ve seen nothing except my taxes going up and the quality of the education in our public schools going down. A huge reason for this drop in quality is the enormous expense of the children - with their parents - who don’t know the language and have no desire to learn it or assimilate into American culture.

By deegee

October 6, 2006 06:18 PM | Link to this

Hello Jim, Illegal immigrants live in housing. The owners of the housing pay property taxes. Your taxes are your responsibility, their taxes are their responsibility. Get over it.

By jim

October 6, 2006 06:23 PM | Link to this

why don’t you negative southern idiots wake up and smell the roses.we are talking about educating people not races.backward a* confederate d*******..

By john

October 6, 2006 06:25 PM | Link to this

all your crying and whinning..shut up and kill yourselves if you don’t like it or hopefull someone does it for you….

By jim

October 6, 2006 06:27 PM | Link to this

erica…you and your son are both americas problem..kill yourseves

By SNY

October 9, 2006 08:56 AM | Link to this

To all of you teachers out there who have come across the hispanic kids that want to learn, good for you. But when my child attended public school last year, she was called the “n” word by a mexican little boy. Guess what happened to him - NOTHING!! The principal said that because he was an ESOL student, he PROBABLY didn’t know what he was saying. So now, black people have to deal with the white people being racist along with the latino population. That is just crazy. The school told me that my daughter would justs have to learn to deal with people who don’t know any better. No note sent home to the parents, nothing said to the student. I was so shocked that I almost slapped the hell out of the principal. Luckily it was close to the end of the year. What gives these people the right to come over here and belittle us. They came on their own free will, if they don’t like it they can GO HOME!

By OldSchool

October 9, 2006 09:19 AM | Link to this

I currently have 7 Latino students throughout my school day and everyone one of them willingly takes on the challenge of learning Engineering Drawing. They are respectful, hard-working, polite, and willing to help other students who are having a difficult time.

I have a young lady in one class who is bilingual. Our guidance department has enrolled 2 new students who speak no English because this student is willing to work with them. She is patiently learning drafting for herself and even more patiently teaching it and English to the others. That is no easy feat.

I love my “colorful” classes as each ethnic group brings a new perspective. It has made me broaden my assignments and get more creative…especially in Residential Design. My students’ experiences are quite varied and they don’t always relate to the generic “three bedroom, two bath home.”

It’s a big ol’ world and we can learn a lot from each other if we really want to.

By Taxpayer

October 9, 2006 11:33 AM | Link to this

The Hispanic students I tutored as a volunteer were unfailingly polite, motivated, and smart. They were eager to learn English and to teach it to their families. That doesnt’t mean, however, that they should have been put into classes with non-ESOL students. No one wins in that situation. The ESOL students are frustrated, the non-ESOl students are aggravated, and the poor teacher gets devastated.

I wish all these illegal immigrants could be made legal. The majority are hard working, decent people. Legalize’em and tax’em!

By another teacher

October 9, 2006 03:39 PM | Link to this

Our school’s Hispanic population is about 15%. In my geometry class, I have about that many. They are my best students. They are the only ones who have their homework done every single night. They never question any assignment I give. They work very hard and ask questions. They are never, ever disrespecful.

By Nja

October 9, 2006 06:03 PM | Link to this

I have also worked with Hispanic children in school. I can say that all except one have been little darlings. The ones I have worked with have been very respectful and they try hard. I will not base my experiences on an entire group. I have had white and black kids who have been disrespectful and walk around with this sense of entitlement attitude. I have have white and black students who have been wonderful.

Unfortunately, a large part of the financial resources that were used in other areas is now being used to fund ESOL. And please don’t say the feds provide money, because the money is next to nothing and it is only provided for a certain number of years.

The barriers I face when working with Hispanic children are the parents who like to pretend they don’t understand English and also the absence rate of the oldest child whom the parents usually pull out of school to help assist them in other areas.

By luvs2teach

October 9, 2006 07:07 PM | Link to this

Most of my ESOL kids are fantastic - and I have far more than just Hispanic - I have Brazilian, Korean, Japanese, Nepalese, Indian, African, Russian, Vietnamese, and Chinese - my school is like the United Nations.

Remember, Hispanic doesn’t just mean Mexican - it could be Columbian, Guatemalan, Cuban, Venezuelan, Argentinian, Puerto Rican etc - They are different cultures connected by a common language - I have found the the Cuban and Argentinian kids tend to have the most well-educated parents, and are very European in attitude. The Guatamalans as someone mentioned above tend to have the most struggles initially, but do well once they get use to American schools.

The biggest problems I see is parents keeping their older kids home to help with the younger children or bringing them along to work, and the gangs that start to attract the boys by the 8th grade. Our school has a very well-developed translator network, so parents are able to communicate with the school and vice-versa.

They are not all perfect, and they certainly bring their own set of challenges to the classroom, but overall I find they they are terrific to work with, and I love the variety of cultures I find at my school.

By SET

October 10, 2006 12:25 PM | Link to this

GA has no clue to what’s coming. Your experience with “vanguard” students means very little. To find out what life will be like under a Mexican invasion of your school districts you need to study the experiences of CA and TX, particularly the Orange County CA School Districts and Los Angeles Unified School District.

A few hints, Tuberculosis, 50% drop out rate, race warfare between the Mexican and Black students with the Blacks losing, deteriorating performance with each generation of Mexican students with the immigrants doing better and their children and grandchildren doing worse (there is a strong IQ related reason for this - “regression to the norm”), Domestic Violence (at school) and early unwed childbearing at a level not previously experienced, geometric increase in the number of Mexican students, etc. Did I mention gangs that kill each other on sight? You might also plan for rapid white, professional black, jewish and asian flight once the Mexican numbers reach critical mass.

Life for GA schools is about to get much more interesting. At least you have the data and experience of the other states to be forewarned by. CA didn’t.

Brave New World.

By V for Vendetta

October 10, 2006 01:04 PM | Link to this

SET,

Please, we don’t have those kind of problems in Georgia! Our heads are buried too deep in the sand to notice things like that!

By jim d

October 10, 2006 02:03 PM | Link to this

Sorry V,

But It’s not the sand we have our heads in.

By V for Vendetta

October 10, 2006 02:10 PM | Link to this

LOL Jim,

Either way the view is not good. Well, one is a lot worse than the other!

By SET

October 10, 2006 02:20 PM | Link to this

There is a difference between the Miami Cuban experiences and the TX and CA Mexican experience. There is also a big difference between the Zero generation immigrant behavior and the later 1st and 2nd generation Mexican American student behavior. CA and the other border states have enough data now to see this.

My critics may say I’m “generalizing” again. That’s what I do when I look at the data available and segment it by large distinct groups. If the GA schools want to keep control of what is developing in your schools you would do well to study closely the experiences of the other states with the waves of students.

Currently I’d expect you are dealing with the vanguard of advance immigrants who are either directly from Mexico or who are the advance guard of refugees who are fleeing the Mexican saturated areas of CA and TX. The vangards are (I believe) brighter and more risk taking people who are also motivated to fit in and get established.

For comparison study the black migration to the west coast related to WWII.

If your school district make decisions and plans based on the experience with the Vanguards (a predictable if dumb response) they will be very surprised and angry at what happens when the later waves and the later generations turn up and start acting like - Mexican Indians - instead of strivers.

We have seen this syndrome across history in the 20th Century and indeed across Human History whenever a great migration occurs.

Cultural Anaphylactic Shock is what occurs. Historically everything is great with the original wave. People get along and the ethnic restaurants open - intergration starts to occur. When the later waves hit you have the passage of Jim Crow laws and Brown Paper Bag tests occur within the minority.

We went through this with Jewish Immigration from Europe, Polish immigration, Italian, Black, all of them. And not just in American history either.

All this isn’t good or bad - it’s just a process that occurs. We need to do our research and be ready to make things work smoothly if we can.

Brave New World.

By SET

October 10, 2006 03:13 PM | Link to this

You might also start writing protocols for 13 to 15 year old Mexican Girls and their 25 year old boyfriends. - Exactly what is your responsibility when these men drop off and pick up their girls at school? Hang around waiting for them to get out of school? And when the girls get pregnant by these men? And when the underaged Mexican girls discuss their older lovers with your other 13 to 15 year old female students?

Mind you I’m keeping an open mind and not saying that this cultural difference isn’t wrong or immoral or anything. It’s just different. After all, the parents are in on it and they may actually like Jose. Jose may even be sharing their daughter’s bedroom and paying rent.

And we haven’t even started discussing Morbid Alcoholism. Have any of you lived near an Indian Reservation? Had any experience with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome? I’m not saying that students will be passed out drunk all over campus - but go look at the statistics for Mexicans. You’re going to learn a thing or two about this…

Is any of this the school’s business??

This is all just an illustration that their are differences between Mexicans and United States culture and I’ve got news for you, the Mexicans aren’t going to change, you are.

Brave New World.

By catlady

October 10, 2006 05:48 PM | Link to this

SET is right, at least in my area. After 20 years of immigration by Latinos into our little county, we are starting to get more of the less-able, less-motivated, less-cream of the crop. That does make a huge difference—more discipline problems, more special ed needs.

Unfortunately many of the ills cited are also very true of our “native” mountain families and the misfit exile (from Atlanta) families we are getting.

By SET

October 10, 2006 06:28 PM | Link to this

Catlady: While you are able to find white families with the particular defects cited my point is the group averages and cultural norms. Besides, the white reproduction rate is the lowest of the major ethnic groups.

Our government is importing massive numbers of Mexican Indians from Mexico for a reason. They are replacing the existing serf class with a new group more appealing to the ruling class. A group they think they can control and dominate with better results. Although they reproduce rapidly they generally maintain a family structure and will follow a chain of command more so that blacks. This is why they are progressing radidly into the prison guard and police services industry where blacks generally can no longer be hired. - These industries are the new “auto workers” of our society. To the extent some of them become underclass criminals they tend to be more disciplined criminals than blacks.

Political conclusions aside, your schools will become different places as your percentage of population is changed. You will find that English will be replaced as the dominate language (and you thought that couldn’t happen!!) and cultural norms such as 25 year olds not openly dating 14 year olds will change. Moreover the new group has intractable ideas about education - or not getting any. See the stats for Mexican Americans for yourself.

Basically the infusion of this group will bring exciting days for years and years for GA teachers and schools.

I’d suggest a triage approach and try to save, convert, educate and assimilate as many of whoever you can. I’d advise not trying to change or save those who simply like the way they are and don’t want to change. What else can you do? Force people to speak english and turn in their homework? I don’t think so.

Despite my earlier and possibly notorious comments about not being in this blog to stick up for the blacks I can’t help but comment that the influx of the Mexicans means the inevitable demise of the black population as a political and economic force. We’re seeing it here in CA.

In CA the Mexicans now overpower the Blacks in the Prison yards as easily as they have displaced them in the hospitality & food service jobs. They are coming to power steadily in our civil service and union organizations and are taking over political offices. Simply put, blacks as a group can’t compete with Mexican Americans as a group. (The Hispanics have higher IQ average - without any accompanying loss of aggression or increase in alturism.)

This change will seem impossible to you in GA - which is why studying the Mexician occupation of CA and elsewhere will be so important to recognize the milestones as it happens in your state.

The Cubans in FL are a different culture with different values (more European) and they can’t be directly compared to the Mexicans.

Again I’m not passing value judgements on any group. Think of this as evolution in action. Things are changing for better or worse. Who’s to say which is which?

By catlady

October 10, 2006 07:42 PM | Link to this

SET-I sure do see the things you are mentioning re some of the Latino groups and young girls. Around here it is frequently the Guatemalan girls “given” to an older man. They end up pregnant quickly and we don’t prosecute because of that (I think that is why. How can we argue with a pregnant 13 year old? I don’t think the authorities even try.) As a teacher what I do is preach, preach education, goals, options, the importance of being ready to be a good wife and mother to my 8-11 year old Latinas, and hope some of it sticks, but they are frequently powerless to protect themselves and any dreams they may have developed beyond population expansion.

Actually, here in the southern Appalachian mountains, the other stuff is quite similar—early sex, early babies, poor education, few skills. We have virtually no black residents. The refugees we get from metro areas are either middle class or those who cannot get along in an environment that expects more of them, so they come here. We sure don’t seem to expect much….. They frequently replicate the norms listed above.

I love where I am but I hate to see what is happening. I guess you could say the same about a number of other spots in our country. I fear for where we are headed, both macro and micro.

By RKG

October 11, 2006 10:45 AM | Link to this

SET: Just curious—exactly where did you earn your degrees in Education Administration, Sociology, History, Statistics, AND Genetics? What you are doing is not generalization. It’s misinterpreting data.

You want to reference research? How about Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? These students are often deprived of the most basic things—food, shelter, love. Maslow found that when lower needs are unmet, you can’t fully devote yourself to fulfilling your potentials, ie—good performance on your math worksheet.

I am completely disgusted by so many of these posts. They advocate for punishing a group of innocent children for their parents’ crimes (and I’m not even comfortable with the word “crime”). Every student in this country is due an education. We don’t have the right to stop them at the door and ask them if their personal history prevents them from being as motivated as their classmates.

This country has got to start looking into the best way to help the schools help this new population. Oh, wait—they don’t want an educated populace. Never mind. Let’s just continue to deprive them of necessary resources so that they stay depressed, poor, uneducated, and desperate.