One area that I might have thought I could agree with Obama is on bilingual vs English-only education. I am not a person who is concerned about Spanish-speaking immigrants ruining our country. Courtesy of Tom Maguire, here are his remarks on the subject:
You know, I don’t understand when people are going around worrying about, “We need to have English- only.” They want to pass a law, “We want English-only.”
Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English — they’ll learn English — you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about, how can your child become bilingual? We should have every child speaking more than one language.
You know, it’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe, and all we can say [is], “Merci beaucoup.” Right?
You know, no, I’m serious about this. We should understand that our young people, if you have a foreign language, that is a powerful tool to get ajob. You are so much more employable. You can be part of international business. So we should be emphasizing foreign languages in our schools from an early age, because children will actually learn a foreign language easier when they’re 5, or 6, or 7 than when they’re 46, like me.
There are several different questions to ask here:
- Should children learn English? Of course. No reasonable person could contest the proposition that your future is much brighter in America (and nearly anywhere else, for that matter) if you can speak English.
- Should children be required by the government to receive English-only education? The principle of personal liberty says no. I think the evidence is that bilingual education hurts English skills, but if your family disagrees, that’s your business.
- Should some children be required by the government to receive bilingual education? Absolutely not.
- Do parents actually want bilingual education? Real data on this question would be useful. Anecdotally, in the few districts with school choice, I’ve read that they have trouble filling bilingual schools but have long waiting lines at English-only schools. Also, one rarely if ever hears of bilingual private schools. (Note, I’m not talking about schools that emphasize teaching foreign languages, but schools where primary education (eg, math) is conducted in a foreign language.) Therefore, it’s at least plausible that the problem is #3, not #2.
- Does the issue of bilingual vs. English-only education have anything whatsoever to do with the Federal government? No.
- Should American children master a foreign language? I guess so. It’s hardly essential, though. I studied Latin in high school, which in practical terms is rarely different from learning no foreign language at all, and I’ve never found it a handicap. In academia, everyone speaks English, and I suspect the same is true in business. If children had a choice between a foreign language or computer science, they’d be much better off with the latter.
- Should American children be required by the Federal government to master a foreign language? I don’t really have to answer this one, do I?
- If you are going to learn a foreign language; should it be, as Obama suggests, Spanish, French, or German? There might be a case to be made for Spanish, due to its prevalence in Latin America, but if you’re looking to the future, you don’t want to learn a European language at all. Europeans after all, tend to speak English already, and the real growth markets are in Asia. Chinese, Japanese, or Hindi would be much more useful.
So how does Obama score? It appears that we agree on #1 and perhaps #2 (although there’s no hint of a libertarian principle in Obama’s position). We also agree on #6 (grudgingly on my part). Obama does not address #3 or #4. (However, I suspect there’s good reason to worry about #3, and he probably would prefer #4 weren’t even asked.) #5 he gets wrong, and by strong implication #7 as well.
#8 is telling. How many people in the world are there with whom you can communicate well in French or German and not in English? Now, how many people are there in China, Japan, and India? (A great many Indians speak very good English, but even more don’t.)
Of course, I’m sure Obama knows this. Despite that, western Europe is where he first goes for examples, not Asia where his case would be much stronger. There is a sort of educated elite in America that thinks in European terms, and feels privately (or not-so-privately) that we Americans really ought to be more like (educated, elite) Europeans. These remarks place him in that camp (if his remarks about bitter Americans clinging to religion hadn’t done so already).
UPDATE: Obama doesn’t speak Spanish himself.
UPDATE (7/18): Actually, Obama doesn’t speak any foreign language at all.
Internet Scofflaw 