Arizona ain't playing. Teachers with accents banned from teaching English in schools

[Kaori]

First Posted: 04-30-10 12:38 PM | Updated: 04-30-10 01:45 PM

Arizona’s new immigration law is just about crime, its supporters say, but given that the state’s new education policy equates ethnic studies programs with high treason, they may not be using the commonly accepted definition of “crime.”

Under the ban, sent to Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer by the state legislature Thursday, schools will lose state funding if they offer any courses that “promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment of a particular race or class of people, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”

As ThinkProgress notes, the Tucson Unified School District’s popular Mexican-American studies department is the target here. The state superintendent charges that the program exhibits “ethnic chauvinism.”

Meanwhile, in a move that was more covert until the Wall Street Journal uncovered it, the Arizona Department of Education has told schools that teachers with “heavy” or “ungrammatical” accents are no longer allowed to teach English classes.

As outlined by the Journal, Arizona’s recent pattern of discriminatory education policies is ironic – and is likely a function of No Child Left Behind funding requirements – given that the state spent a decade recruiting teachers for whom English was a second language.

In the 1990s, Arizona hired hundreds of teachers whose first language was Spanish as part of a broad bilingual-education program. Many were recruited from Latin America.

Then in 2000, voters passed a ballot measure stipulating that instruction be offered only in English. Bilingual teachers who had been instructing in Spanish switched to English.

Teachers who don’t meet the new fluency standards have the option of taking classes to improve their English, the Journal reports, but if they fail to reach the state’s targets would be fired or reassigned.

Arizona Ethnic Studies Classes Banned, Teachers With Accents Can No Longer Teach...

Shit is getting serious…

[nohbdy]

Now if they could only ban teachers with heavy accents from teaching math. I need to understand what you’re saying while you explain what the hell just happened to all those numbers.

[FiveTwelve]

Tough call. On one hand, it’s kind of ridiculous. You can learn all the subtleties of Shakespeare from a teacher even if their accent is thick. On the other, your pronunciation of certain words is bound to be a little flawed if you were taught by someone who couldn’t say it properly in the first place (this applies to childhood only, obviously). Considering how a lot of kids speak these days you can kind of understand where they’re coming from. When they’re older and in high school this really shouldn’t be a problem though.

I really hope people understand this post and don’t get their panties in a knot and start yelling “racism!” All I’m saying is that when children are learning something for the first time it should be taught undiluted. Once they’re a little more grown up, it really doesn’t matter if their teachers have an accent.

[Rugalitarian]

Now if they could only ban teachers with heavy accents from teaching math. I need to understand what you’re saying while you explain what the hell just happened to all those numbers.

YES! THIS 500 TIMES OVER! I’ve lost count of how many Math courses I’ve had to drop at the beginning of a semester because of some professor with a heavy accent that absolutely NO ONE can understand at all.

The last course I had to drop, I swear it was a female Zangief with the heaviest Russian accent trying to teach Math. About 15 people walked out of the class the first day because of it. How they keep professors like that on payroll is beyond me. Anyone who lives in South Florida knows what I’m talking about. I’d be done with college if it wasn’t for that bullcrap.

[spudlyff8fan]

You’re quoting from the Huffington Post?

GTFO.

[Sanoshi]

Oh shit, serious AZ is serious.

BUT! Having an English teacher with a hella heavy accent is horrible. True fact, i know.

[The_Grey_Area]

Yeah, we may need another source here. Those guys are like one step away from printing “Arizona ate my baby”…Down with the Facists!!!1

[Kaori]

For all the Huff Haters… http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/teachers/heavily-accented-teachers-remo.html

[I_Am_Lothar]

Now if they could only ban teachers with heavy accents from teaching math. I need to understand what you’re saying while you explain what the hell just happened to all those numbers.

Enjoy having no Math teachers then. The only people that know shit about pure Math anymore are from foreign countries.

imo.

[nohbdy]

Enjoy having no Math teachers then. The only people that know shit about pure Math anymore are from foreign countries.

imo.

YES! THIS 500 TIMES OVER! I’ve lost count of how many Math courses I’ve had to drop at the beginning of a semester because of some professor with a heavy accent that absolutely NO ONE can understand at all.

The last course I had to drop, I swear it was a female Zangief with the heaviest Russian accent trying to teach Math. About 15 people walked out of the class the first day because of it. How they keep professors like that on payroll is beyond me. Anyone who lives in South Florida knows what I’m talking about. I’d be done with college if it wasn’t for that bullcrap.

American students can’t learn from foreign math teachers with heavy accents.
No new American graduates to fill math teaching jobs.
Schools have to hire foreign teachers with heavy accents to teach math.
Sounds like a vicious cycle.

Should we have foreign language as a prerequisite for math? :lol:

[spudlyff8fan]

For all the Huff Haters… http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/teachers/heavily-accented-teachers-remo.html

That article kind of spells things out differently than the Huffington Post article (which is in no way a surprise) and it’s yet another affirmative example of my “if you don’t live there, you can’t really speak with any authority on the subject” doctrine. While the Huffington Post basically says “a bunch of racist ogres are trying to chase foreigners out of schools”, actual news outlets make the valid point that “hey, a strong percentage of the kids in these English classes are actually learning English”, which, obviously, is quite different from the rest of us who spent our High School English years reading The Illiad and Shakespeare.

So yeah…

[Kaori]

That article kind of spells things out differently than the Huffington Post article (which is in no way a surprise) and it’s yet another affirmative example of my “if you don’t live there, you can’t really speak with any authority on the subject” doctrine. While the Huffington Post basically says “a bunch of racist ogres are trying to chase foreigners out of schools”, actual news outlets make the valid point that “hey, a strong percentage of the kids in these English classes are actually learning English”, which, obviously, is quite different from the rest of us who spent our High School English years reading The Illiad and Shakespeare.

So yeah…

O…K…

Point is the shit IS happening.

[ckrazy]

Now if they could only ban teachers with heavy accents from teaching math. I need to understand what you’re saying while you explain what the hell just happened to all those numbers.

Ahhhh i remember having 4 Indian teachers in a row for calc, calc2, business calc, and business stat.

[Kromo]

If we’re lucky, this will curb that obnoxious American accent. Hopefully they get some good British teachers to help kids speak properly.

[spudlyff8fan]

If we’re lucky, this will curb that obnoxious American accent. Hopefully they get some good British teachers to help kids speak properly.

Sure. “American” accent.

Not our fault the British have no idea which syllables to emphasize on a word-by-word basis.

[SimpleKiss]

I think it’s pretty fucking stupid to disallow teachers with heavy accents to teach English. I can kind of understand why, but not really when you look at it. There are plenty of americans I know with no outstanding accents and have terrible grammar.

Also, English just isn’t about ‘words.’ What about Shakespeare? Ezra Pound is technically American, but he lived in Italy during World War 2.

I’m not going to touch Arizona’s immigration laws, but honestly. This shit just sounds racist, imo. Besides, you can have a heavy accent and still have proper grammar; it’s the pronounciation part that’s a little messed up. But even then, who the fuck here can properly pronounce “zounds” without going to dictionary.com or without the help of [media=youtube]hA7lv1SDzno"[/media]

[spudlyff8fan]

I think it’s pretty fucking stupid to disallow teachers with heavy accents to teach English. I can kind of understand why, but not really when you look at it. There are plenty of americans I know with no outstanding accents and have terrible grammar.

Also, English just isn’t about ‘words.’ What about Shakespeare? Ezra Pound is technically American, but he lived in Italy during World War 2.

I’m not going to touch Arizona’s immigration laws, but honestly. This shit just sounds racist, imo. Besides, you can have a heavy accent and still have proper grammar; it’s the pronounciation part that’s a little messed up. But even then, who the fuck here can properly pronounce “zounds” without going to dictionary.com or without the help of [media=youtube]hA7lv1SDzno"[/media]

That article kind of spells things out differently than the Huffington Post article (which is in no way a surprise) and it’s yet another affirmative example of my “if you don’t live there, you can’t really speak with any authority on the subject” doctrine. While the Huffington Post basically says “a bunch of racist ogres are trying to chase foreigners out of schools”, actual news outlets make the valid point that “hey, a strong percentage of the kids in these English classes are actually learning English”, which, obviously, is quite different from the rest of us who spent our High School English years reading The Illiad and Shakespeare.

So yeah…

!!!

[R.P.D_rookie]

So does this mean we can start ousting those southern teachers with heavy accents that turn two syllable words into four syllable words?

[McGeezer]

I can see their logic in the English teachers thing, but in the end it’s not really anything but racist
children learn to speak first at home, from their parents, English or otherwise, accent or not, and I know plenty of people with heavy accented parents and their child speaks fine English
so I dunno, just my two cents

[spudlyff8fan]

So does this mean we can start ousting those southern teachers with heavy accents that turn two syllable words into four syllable words?

I certainly hope so.

I can see their logic in the English teachers thing, but in the end it’s not really anything but racist
children learn to speak first at home, from their parents, English or otherwise, accent or not, and I know plenty of people with heavy accented parents and their child speaks fine English
so I dunno, just my two cents

But once again, for a lot of Arizona students, they’re not learning to speak English at home.