Embracing diversity
Midland Park Elementary takes on challenges of having district's biggest Hispanic enrollment
Wade Spees
The Post and Courier
Leidy Cardona Hernandez (center) applauds with other fourth graders during a 'publication celebration' of their stories Tuesday at Midland Park Elementary School. Hernandez was born in Guatemala.
Wade Spees
The Post and Courier
A sign at Midland Park Elementary says the school needs male mentors.
A striking surge in Hispanic students at one Charleston County elementary school has changed the way its educators do business.
The school communicates with its Hispanic parents in their native tongue, and teachers work hard to overcome the language barrier of students and their families.
Hispanic students make up nearly half of the roughly 750 students at Midland Park Elementary School in North Charleston, up from just 20 percent five years ago. Its Hispanic enrollment is the largest in the county and among the largest in the state. The Hispanic student growth spurt at Midland Park is the most dramatic in the school district, but similar increases can be seen throughout county schools.
The racial diversity in Charleston County schools traditionally has consisted of black and white students, but an increasing number of Hispanic students is affecting the school district's approach in reaching out to families.
The number of Hispanic students in Charleston County nearly has doubled in the past five years, from 1,370 in 2004-05 to 2,317 this year. Hispanic students now make up about 5.5 percent of the roughly 42,000 public school children, black students account for about 50 percent and white students are about 42 percent.
Rachel Amey, the district's coordinator for English Speakers of Other Languages, said in her eight years with the district, the number of ESOL teachers has nearly tripled. About 87 percent of those who don't speak English speak
Spanish; the remaining 13 percent speak 35 different languages.
The district's Hispanic population growth has necessitated the hiring of a bilingual parent advocate and a bilingual administrator. The school district sends parents letters and phone messages in Spanish. More classes are offered to Spanish-speaking parents, and translation software is available to schools across the district, Amey said.
"Everybody is more aware (of Hispanic families), and at every level in the school, the personnel and staff seek to support our students and parents now," Amey said.
Midland Park has earned a reputation for welcoming all cultures, and school Principal Robert Candillo said that was one reason the school's Hispanic population has shot up.
Anything that goes home to parents is sent in Spanish and English, whether it's progress reports or homework for kindergartners. The school provides educational games for families with the directions in Spanish, and it holds its PTA meetings in Spanish and English. It employs a translator, three full-time and 2 part-time ESOL teachers as well as bilingual teachers, psychologists and speech pathologists to work with its Spanish-speaking students and parents.
Although students must learn English, the school values their ability to speak Spanish. As a result, the school plans to pilot the district's first dual immersion program next year with a kindergarten class. Students will receive half of their lessons in English and half in Spanish.
"We don't want them to lose their native language," Candillo said.
Bilingual art teacher Brenda Reyes said schools need to go beyond meeting students' needs and help their parents. Hispanic parents often don't understand the English language or schools' expectations because they are unfamiliar with both, she said.
"Parents need to be helped more," she said. "We're doing what we can. If other schools do the same, that would be great."
Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.
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Comments
This article has 17 comment(s)
Posted by NativeSon on November 30, 2008 at 6 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Any way you look at it, they are mostly illegals stealing an education at taxpayer expense and causing massive interruption of the education process to accomodate their disgusting, illegal entry parents.
Posted by LadyM on November 30, 2008 at 7:32 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It is imperative that you contact your state politicos and demand that H4400 be enhanced and most of all enforced. It is ridiculous that we have to learn a foreign language in our schools so that illegal aliens and their children feel more at home. This isn't their home if they are here illegally. They must be found and deported at once. Why is it that only Spanish is the language that we must accomodate. Why not any other language. Could it be that the others are willing to come here legally and learn our language. Enough is enough, this is costing our country billions every year, money that should be spent to enhance educating our citizens and those children of legal immigrants. Start making the calls now and demand that our laws be enforced and all illegal's removed from this country.
Posted by moonpie on November 30, 2008 at 8:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Here is a fix to your problem, MANDATORY ENGLISH! You come here no matter how, legally or illegally, at least have the smarts to learn the english language.
Posted by dawhetsell on November 30, 2008 at 9:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Until about 15 years ago, English was the offical language of the United States. For centuries we were the melting pot and everyone of the legal imigrants and their children would gladly learn ENGLISH. Now the EDUCRATS want to force Spanish on our children so we can make the ILLEGAL HISPANIC children feed at home is if they stayed in their FORIGEN COUNTRIES. I think they all need to be DEPORTED and quit forcing thrir ways and culture on our children. They are causing our children not to get quality education do to the illigals overtaxing our schools,hospitals and social programs.
Posted by onesidedsquare on November 30, 2008 at 10:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)
have the child inherit the mothers citizenship, that would fix the problem
Posted by Toots2U on November 30, 2008 at 11:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree with the child inheriting the citizenship of the mother. A very sound amendment to the constitution. How does a child 'lose' its native language, when that is what is spoken at home? Does the State of South Carolina and the Charleston School District ensure the Native American children keep their language? Are lessons, progress reports and other notices printed in a Native American childs' language? I rather doubt it. I see it is just another way of welcoming the illegals to South Carolina.
Posted by KidYendor on November 30, 2008 at 2:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The whites of Charleston County need to produce more children to retake the lead in majority student enrollment at our schools. The white community must join together, retake our vicinity and stop white flight from Charleston County.
Posted by buzzinlikealdrin on November 30, 2008 at 3:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)
TERM LIMITS is the answer to this problem...on a local, state, and national level.
Posted by LutherVanderhorst on November 30, 2008 at 4:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Embrace diversity? I prefer a polite handshake.
Posted by losangeles on November 30, 2008 at 5:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The residents of Charleston (black and white) had better start saving your money. The Hispanics will ruin your schools and you will have to send your children to private school to get a decent education. I live in Los Angeles and wouldn't dream of sending my child to public school. Some of the schools here are 99% Hispanic with way over half of those not fluent in English. I am constantly amazed at the "warm and fuzzy" tone to many of the articles in the Post and Courier regarding Hispanics in the area.
Posted by PalmettoDP on November 30, 2008 at 6:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
When future historians study the collapse of the United States, they will find articles like this helpful and revealing.
Posted by JF on November 30, 2008 at 10:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Pro illegal article par for the P&C no mention of cost to the citizens at all.
Posted by KidYendor on November 30, 2008 at 11:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I believe I have a wingnut addler tool in my toolbox. We simply must stop the shrinking population of middle class whites from Charleston County. Seminars, meetings and conferences must be coordinated to make Charleston County schools and the area white-friendly. It is almost scary that whites account for a mere 42% of school population. American Americans must promote an English only environment in public schools. Hispanic parents will be around at home to not allow their children to "lose their native language."
Posted by iceman1978 on December 1, 2008 at 1 a.m. (Suggest removal)
What happened to assimilation? Do these people realize that unless these kids learn to speak English that their future prospects are greatly diminished?
Suppose that you were to move to France and enroll your child in the public schools. Do you think that school officials in France would bend over backwards to accommodate your refusal to learn the language of the country? They would look at you like you were nuts. The same story would be the case if you moved to Germany, Italy or most other European nations.
Guess what? I speak Norwegian around the house, and also when I'm on the phone with friends in Bergen or Oslo. I haven't lost my "native tongue" even though I was born in the US and Norway is my ancestral home. If you want to speak Spanish or any other language around your home then that's wonderful. Immigrant groups should hold onto their language and culture, but they should also assimilate into the society they have moved to.
Posted by eyfigueroa on December 1, 2008 at 11:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
“The WHITES of Charleston County need to produce more children to retake the lead in majority student enrollment at our schools. The WHITE community must join together, retake our vicinity and stop WHITE flight from Charleston County.”
“We simply must stop the shrinking population of middle class WHITES from Charleston County.”
“Seminars, meetings and conferences must be coordinated to make…the area WHITE-friendly.”
I laughed sooooooo hard that I spewed coffee all over my keyboard. I mean seminars & conferences? ROFL ROFL ROFL. It is amazing to me that in 2008 and soon-to-be 2009 that there could be an individual who would actually write that drivel and be compelled to justify it. I find it so hilarious in fact that I’ve shared this post with several others. But then I realized that under the cover of anonymity I guess it is okay to express such singular xenophobic views.
My dear dear kidyendor. My Black ancestors have been here since the 1600s and in one form or another my Hispanic ancestors have been here for over 100 years with my father moving here in the late 1950s. And for you to be so singularly concerned for only the WHITE citizens is very telling of your attitude towards being an AMERICAN and other AMERICANS as well. My brown family is just as AMERICAN as yours if not more so.
Your posts today simply makes you the EXACTLY as other bigots or racists whether Black, Hispanic or White who think their ethnicity/race somehow makes them superior and deserving of special considerations.
Illegal immigration affects/effects ALL AMERICANS, not just those who are WHITE. The decidedly liberal politics affecting our government schools with these ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusive’ policies will drag the school system even further down the slippery slope of failure.
This issue knows no color or race, it is an issue for ALL of us to define and defeat.
Kidyendor, today is your lucky day. I call you out to be a fool, a xenophobe, a bigot and a racist. Please wear your mantle of idiocy proudly. When you are done “hiding” behind your anonymity let me know, there are several of us who are meeting soon and I gladly invite you. Perhaps then you will have the cojones to explain face to face why you feel saving ‘your’ people is more important than saving AMERICA as a whole.
Posted by eyfigueroa on December 1, 2008 at 12:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
“Immigrant groups should hold onto their language and culture, but they should also assimilate into the society they have moved to.”
Assimilation has become a ‘dirty’ word to the liberal elite. Conversely the über-conservatives would like nothing more than everyone to become like them, Christians who all tow one particular political, religious and cultural ideology.
Neither is correct!
There is absolutely NOTHING wrong for adhering to ancestral cultures and religions, especially within the confines of your home. However, to INSIST that the overall AMERICAN culture convert solely to your way of life is wrong and the antithesis to what we stand for.
I’ve never had any problems with the various festivals and celebrations, whether secular or religious. I could care less what others worship or the buildings they worship in whether it’s a mosque, synagogue or church. I really could care less what language is spoken between family members and friends.
My own family celebrates several aspects of different cultures and I do not believe we are any less American for doing so.
But when it comes to ASSIMILATING I say immigrants should do so without hesitation. It is NOT the right of immigrants to FORCE Americans to adhere to the tenets of their ancestral homeland.
Until this push from the left to disregard American cultural mores in order to embrace the ideals of inclusion and the push from the right to force everyone to be exactly the same be stopped, there will always be this cultural confusion.
There is such a thing as a melting pot. It should continue, diversity can and does make America stronger. But there has to be limitations. And language should be that boundary, the pot so to speak, which binds us all together. Forcing ANY other language other than English in our govt. schools is only asking for trouble. It will keep immigrants from truly enjoying the American experience.
Posted by klseen on January 19, 2009 at 7:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Wow! I am amazed that so many of you seem to think that forcing a child to learn a language besides English is so terrible. I was born and raised here by parents who both spoke English and although we had foreign language class in high school it was too little too late. I think having a bilingual school would be awesome! Not just for the Latinos, but especially for our children who only know English. What is wrong with exposing our children to other cultures and languages at a young age? In Europe most of those kids know at least 2 languages, if not 3 or 4--fluently! I would love that!
And, many of these students are losing their native language. Even with parents speaking it at home, they are not fully literate in their own language. I am a teacher, and I've only come across one student who was fully literate in his native language. Most parents speak the language, they don't teach their child how to read or write. If you think about it, they are working parents just like we are. How many of you sit down with your child and give him/her a reading/writing lesson after work? We are lucky to get their homework done and supper on the table before it is time for bed. I find it sad that people just see it as catering to another culture, rather than seeing the benefit in learning that culture (whether Spanish, German, Chinese, etc.). I would be more than happy to find a school that would teach in more than one language for the benefit of my child. A bilingual child has doors of opportunity open to them that our "English-only" children don't. Think of where they could go and what kind of jobs they could get if they were bilingual in Spanish-English or Chinese-English. Spanish is spoken all through South America, and Central America, Spain, and even right here in the U.S. That's not a bad choice for a 2nd language.
Think beyond the white, English-only ideals. A 2nd language is not just good for the English language learners to keep their language, it is good for ALL American children to learn a 2nd language.