ANSWERS: 16
  • I am against such ideas. There should not be students that cannot speak even rudimentary English in US schools. Bilingual education is a crock. My mother spent 32 years teaching on the Texas-Mexico border. A certified bilingual education teacher, she saw first hand how it goes down with 99.9% of the illegal alien kids and their families. What little can be taught in school is undone at home because the home environment is 100% Spanish. What incentive do these illegal aliens have to learn English? Government documents are printed in Spanish. Government and medical service providers have Spanish translators on hand. Illegals congregate in their own neigborhood enclaves where Spanish is the linga franca of the area. What was once limited to the border area, the ability to go 30+ years and not need to learn a single lick of English, has spread like wildfire across the country.
  • read your question over again,or over and over again.you will notice the answer is in the question... hint,united states. how would you like the u.s.citizens living abroad ask other countries to adapt the same policy you are requesting?
  • Why isn't english the offical language of the United States yet? When I visited France I spoke French, when I visited Spain, I brought along an interpretor to speak spanish for me. But now suddenly I'm suppose to learn Spanish because a bunch of immigrants don't feel like learning English even though they are comming into MY country? No they can learn English if they want to live here.
  • This would be a most appropriate FIRST English lesson for them! Coming from any country, if they wish to live here, learn the language. Otherwise, stay home. Should I move to a foreign country, I expect to adapt to their way of life and not the opposite.
  • This is not a federal question; the United States does not set any policy regarding saying the Pledge of Allegiance in local public schools. It's up to the local school board. I am a minority opinion here, but I think it's great. It's a great way for kids learning Spanish to practice; it's a great way for kids whose native language is Spanish but who are U.S. citizens or becoming U.S. citizens to show their enthusiasm for their new country. For kids who speak Spanish and are not citizens (like foreign exchange students), or not trying to become citizens -- why would they be pledging allegiance to a nation which is not their own? They can, of course -- we accept non-citizens in our military, and they take a pledge of allegiance to the U.S. -- but they don't have to.
  • I'm not in favor of such policy. I like the feeling of patriotic unification that exists when saying the pledge in a group. If you make allowances for one language, you'd have to make them for all. If everyone spoke the pledge in a different language, it would lose the feeling of strength and unification. I have no objection to those who speak English as a second language, but I think every effort should be made to learn the English language as well. I, in turn, make the effort to learn the predominant language when traveling to a foreign country.
  • Might as well, they are going to bankrupct the social security system and all the money you have deposited for your retirement, will be sent to mexico. When will this nonsense end?
  • It doesn't make any difference what language. In Texas, the Mexican immigrants are allowed to say the Mexican pledge of allegiance anyway, in american schools. EDIT: Added links. http://www.royalgenes.biz/soc.retirement/thread222.html http://www.minutemanhq.com/hq/article.php?sid=146 http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52521
  • I now live on the border. When I walk up the streets, in the stores and malls, around school, etc. on the American side of the the boarder the dominant language that I here is Spanish. When I go to the other side of the boarder, the dominant language that I hear is Spanish. When Mexicans come to this side to shop or conduct business, the expect us to speak to them in Spanish. However, don't expect them to speak English on the other side of the boarder if we go over there to do business. Do you see a pattern here? Rather than respecting the American culture and trying to fit in with it, they expect us to cater to them. Now, I have nothing against the Spanish language or those that speak it. It's just as good a language as English for communicating. I also have nothing against Mexicans expecting us to speak Spanish when we go to their country. That is just showing respect for their culture. However, they are not showing the same respect for ours. In the past, when immigrants came to this country, they strove to learn English as quickly as they could and they saw to it that their children also learned English. They did this so that they could more fully access the opportunities that this country offered. The people coming up from Latin American don't seem to be showing that same respect for us and our culture. I find this to be rather offensive. I see this move to allow the Pledge to be recited in Spanish as just one more symptom of this larger problem. Now I have made some rather broad generalizations here. As is always the case, there are exceptions to such generalizations. I know many Mexican immigrants here who came here legally, have learned English, and whose children do speak very good English. However, these seem to be the exceptions rather than the rules. I am sure that the others are mostly good people. However, if they are going to come here to live in this country, then they should learn to speak English out of respect for the dominant culture of this country.
  • To be frank, I don't think such a policy is needed. The first amendment serves this purpose quite nicely. In any case, the pledge should not be required of anyone, in any language.
  • Glenn, I lived there from 1977 to 1987. Went to school in both the parochial and public systems.
  • Theodore Roosevelts ideas on being an American in 1907. "In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace,or origin.But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all.We have room for but one flag, the American flag..We have room for but one language here,and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." Theodore Roosevelt 1907.
  • Countries are made up by their people. If there are more people speaking Spanish then people just have to DEAL with that - having a second language isn't taking away anything from the United States, and it's not as though "speaking English" is a super-dooper important value the country was founded on.
  • If I moved to France I would be expected to learn French, If I moved to Germany I would have to learn German, If I moved to Mexico I would have to learn Spanish. So why is it that Americans are being "racist" when we want them to learn english when they move to America? Why do we have to learn spanish for them to live here? They can say the pledge however they want but I am going to say it in the language of this country. If they want to come here and work, go to school, etc then they should learn the language here not the other way around. I understand that America is/was built on immigration but used to they came and learned to get there citizenship, now they come an do what they want and blame us for not being able to understand them. My mother-in-law just got fired for calling a mexican a mexican when referring to one....how crazy. They have over run our town and probably many others. There are not enough jobs here and not enough room but somehow it is our fault?! The only places that hire here hire mexicans before Americans and Americans get fired way more. The rules where I work are against cussing, fighting, stealing and not doing your work (general rules and hugely summarized) but they do not apply to mexicans who cuss all the time in english and spanish and who like to pick fights with Americans and then the American is fired for fighting. If they hate us so much then they should go back! Don’t get me wrong I've had good friends who where mexican but they where citizens, knew english and knew how to act in a work place. Knowing two languages is fine but you shouldn’t have to learn one from another country just because a bunch of illegal immigrants come over and demand it!
  • I'm a strong beliver in English as an official language and in having immigrants go to the trouble to learn at least a minimal amount of it. That's what my grandparents did, and so can everyone else! Plus, speaking and understanding English gives immigrants a better chance in job-seeking and therefore a chance at a better life. And, no, I'm not Hispanic.
  • No problem. Until USA adopts a single language and denotes one official language for all communication, then it must accept that the people who live there may speak other languages.

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