Assimilate immigrants by teaching English

Letter to the Editor of The Cincinnati Post

To the editor of The Post:

In his May 28 column, George Will says that people who vote in this country should be able to speak English (“Engaging in civic dialogue”). But the problem isn’t that they don’t want to (or can’t) learn. Rather, it’s that our public schools often deny them this opportunity.

Far too many of our country’s 5.5 million English learners are isolated for years in bilingual education programs. These children spend most or all of the day in separate classrooms, taught overwhelmingly in their native languages with little emphasis on learning English.

Research shows that children most easily learn a second language before the age of 7. But many immigrant students don’t see the inside of an English-speaking classroom until long after that age.

The best way to bring immigrants into our culture — political and otherwise — is not to segregate them. It’s to teach them English.