The Kansas City Star is running a sympathetic story about a community center that's about to lose some state funding for its English as Second Language program. Far from inducing my sympathy, the paper convinces me the state might have good reason in the mere lede:
The article continues with some he-said, she-said where the school budget recipients explain why a grown woman has gotten to short phrases in English in five years is really, really good and with state budget purveyors saying that's not so good after all. I'd have to say I am with the latter.Suldano Nuur has been attending language school for five years.
In class, the Somali woman stands out for more than her head-to-toe bright yellow sari. She is the vocal one who isn’t afraid to speak up and who corrects fellow students as they practice writing their names.
Nuur, 62, speaks English only in short phrases like “eat food” and “little English” and “thank you, teacher.” But through a translator, she gushes with pride in her progress: “I can read the letters. Can you imagine? I never held a pen, and now I can read the alphabet.”
Though Nuur is proud of what she has accomplished, Missouri is not satisfied with the pace of learning at her school, the adult education center at Della Lamb Community Services in Kansas City.
I know several ESL classes run by church groups.
In one, by year 3 they are reading chapters of books.
Five years to write the alphabet is keeping people down. Something is wrong.
Posted by: Jennifer Krupp | 08/01/2010 at 03:58 PM