The Bilingual Debate: Transitional Classrooms

The Bilingual Debate: Transitional Classrooms By BRUCE FULLER in the New York Times is an interesting look at the current ESL situation in classrooms across the United States. In particular, this editorial takes a look at Barak Obama's approach to ESL:

Mr. Obama favors “transitional bilingual education,” meaning that he believes teachers should transition children to English as quickly as possible, building-up from students’ knowledge of their native language. That is, youngsters should become literate in two languages, not one.

The editorial is interesting and informative, and the follow-up discussion is superb.