Saturday, March 3, 2012

Marching Back to the Middle Ages

castle_entrance

The march of human civilization isn’t always forward.  Lately, it seems we’ve been swept with a nostalgia for the old … and the very wrong.

I present to you a recent example that I see as an egregious violation.  Indeed, I think the teacher should have been counseled after the incident and fired after the supposed apology.  Please take a look and decide for yourself after clicking the following link:

Menominee Language Controversy

6 comments:

  1. As you know I am Irish, and I am informed that my native tongue is Irish, or Gaelic as my Americans cousins prefer to call it. All my life we spoke English at home. For me Irish was a subject that was forced upon us in school, thanks to Patrick Pearse et al - See Blackwatertown's post today.

    My point here is that if we were in conversation where everyone spoke English, it would be considered ill mannered to break into the other language - in this case Irish, especially if there were non Irish speakers present.

    Manners & respect are out of fashion these days in favour of five minutes fame and the chance of compensation.

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    1. I agree on manners and respect. It can be rude to break into another language and I suspect that is what the teacher reacted to emotionally.

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  2. Ah yes - those thrilling days of yesteryear - I am quite sure Rick Santorum heartily approves of the initial reaction and he probably threw up at the apology. I don't think there's ANY valid reason for that initial reaction unless the kid was really telling the teacher to "f..." off in her native tongue. Having grown up with kids speaking Spanish from early ages in class to each other I do not see it as impolite nor even unusual. While I do agree with GM that manners & respect are out of fashion, I don't see this as an egregious sin - merely a kid being a kid and a frustrated teacher allowing the frustration to get the better of her. But it is a Catholic school and they make the rules so a degree of this attitude is to be expected.

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    1. Yes, we are surrounded by Spanish Speaking here, aren't we? But, I think you strike to the heart of what is really important here and is not addressed by bad journalism - was it a school rule that had been discussed and accepted by the community, or was it an act of an individual who became upset.

      If it was a rule and as a parent you don't like the rule, you can work to change it or you can put your child in a different school. If it was a rule, then the Archdiocese and the Principal are the ones out of line. If it was not a rule, then what the hell were the teacher and the Principal doing in punishing the girl?

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  3. Over here, the English medium schools have a rule that all conversation must be in English. This is for the benefit of the students who do not get to speak English at home as, by and large their mothers, speak the local language. Students caught speaking in their mother tongue are disciplined and it is taken as a matter of course for the benefit of the students. Without having access to the entire episode from both sides of the fence, I think that it is unfair to blame the teacher.

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    1. The big question, as I put it to shackman, was whether it was in fact a rule. You are correct in that I reacted emotionally in blaming the teacher without knowing that.

      It may not have been a rule, simply because we have two different cultures and America is sensitive to these issues in its own way. The Archdiocese responded to those sensitivities and I would like to know if it was a rule agreed upon or not.

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