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Hold on a sec. According to the 2000 Census, only three states out of 50+ Washington DC had more than 20% who spoke Spanish at home and only 10 states with more than 10% speaking Spanish at home.
Also, only 9 states had Hispanic/Latin American populations comprising 15% or more of the state population.
In fact, for 32/51 states & DC, Home speakers of Spanish was <6%!! And
By these statistical measures, it is clear that the "Hispanic" scare is so ridiculously blown out of proportion as far as being a truly nationwide "crisis." The numbers are highly concentrated.
As to why the invective? The answer is simple. What are the states that show up on both lists of usual suspects?
California
Texas
Florida
New York
New Jersey
Illinois
Nevada
New Mexico
Arizona
So in these states. the power of media is huge (save New Mexico). These are also populous and popular states in our imagination...well, maybe not NJ! Just kidding...
But the overweight of national media on SF, LA, NY, Miami & Chicago is blowing things way, way out of proportion and into the hands of hate groups.
These are obviously big and important states as to electoral votes. However, the Hispanic presence in the vast majority of states is quite modest.
Finally, given that English is the language of our laws and that 87.2% of American homes speak English at home (12.8% is Spanish & hundreds of others), it is simply not the cae that there is any reason whatsoever to enshrine Spanish into American public policies. Instead, as I have argued on this thread, the Speaking of Spanish should remain an economic decision, one that has great validity.
S.
Interesting? So WHY do I have to select English when I go to the ATM or call for any kind of service? If spanish isn't spoken that commonly, why do so may systems default to spanish of you don't choose English?
Given that we are printing street signs in spanish and defaulting to spanish for support calls, I thought it was more common than that.
Interesting? So WHY do I have to select English when I go to the ATM or call for any kind of service? If spanish isn't spoken that commonly, why do so may systems default to spanish of you don't choose English?
.
This is simple, they don't. ATMs usually have multiple language choices, here there is typically 4~5 choices.
Anyhow, businesses can do whatever they want and despite knowing English a native Spanish speaker is likely going to prefer to communicate in Spanish.
Sorry to be ignorant, Coldwynn, but what exactly are "motivational activities"?? I don't teach science.
Motivational activities, according to the definitions in the TIMSS coding of the videos, include any activity that seek to engage the students to the task to be done or encourage the student to participate in the task, but do not necessarily contain any science- or lesson-specific content.
I've only seen some of the videos from the 1995 study and from what I can tell, motivational activities include field trips that had little to do with the unit or lesson plan, games or physical activity that were intended for "waking up the student", inclusion of "toys" that did not work well as models or model building, anticipatory sets that were little more than just cute, tangential activities rather than a way of engaging students with content.
In my own observations, I've noted a lot of these "cutesy" activities like using a bunch of household items to depict parts of a cell (tinfoil for the cell wall, candy for the mitochondria, etc), or demos that are tantamount to chemical magic (aluminum foil that heats up so you can't hold it, blowing up hydrogen balloons) because the instructor does not tie it up to the unit or the lesson plan.
In my own observations, I've noted a lot of these "cutesy" activities like using a bunch of household items to depict parts of a cell (tinfoil for the cell wall, candy for the mitochondria, etc), or demos that are tantamount to chemical magic (aluminum foil that heats up so you can't hold it, blowing up hydrogen balloons) because the instructor does not tie it up to the unit or the lesson plan.
From my brief observation of science classes -- well, some -- it seems like many science classes spend a great deal of time on these "motivational" activities. For example, one class I'm aware of has a unit on moles (the unit of measurement, not the animal) every year, so the students (this is high school, BTW) make little fuzzy felt moles which they put on display after dressing and decorating.
Not only does this tend to confuse the mole/mole distinction, but just as a teacher, I couldn't help thinking that the hour or so a student spent making his mole (and some of them were very elaborately decorated) might have been better spent ...oh, I don't know. Memorizing the periodic table? Something useful?
From my brief observation of science classes -- well, some -- it seems like many science classes spend a great deal of time on these "motivational" activities. For example, one class I'm aware of has a unit on moles (the unit of measurement, not the animal) every year, so the students (this is high school, BTW) make little fuzzy felt moles which they put on display after dressing and decorating.
Not only does this tend to confuse the mole/mole distinction, but just as a teacher, I couldn't help thinking that the hour or so a student spent making his mole (and some of them were very elaborately decorated) might have been better spent ...oh, I don't know. Memorizing the periodic table? Something useful?
Unfortunately, we're dealing with kids who expect to be entertained. It's not up to them to pay attention. It's up to me to hold their attention. I hate the cutesy stuff but you have to do it frequently enough to keep their attention. Yeah, I do mole day . Stuff like that helps in the long run.
BTW, anyone know where I can get a mole puppet?....
You know there is an entertainment aspect of education. My boss at one of the nuclear power plants where I was an operations trainer was one of the most animated and entertaining lecturers I have ever met, he had a way of making the material engaging and interesting, hard to put my finger on it, except to say he was the antithesis of the teacher in Ferris Buehler's Day Off, asking "Anybody know, anybody, Buehler?" He moved around, asked us questions, you know he moved around almost like he was sparring with us, and, mentally, he was. And if you were tired and distracted at the start of the class, no matter, he would energize and engage you, he would attract your interest to the topic at hand such that you willingly forgot about your troubles for the duration of his lecture anyway, and he could teach a room full of men all about breast feeding babies, or whatever they had the least interest and practical need for, notwithstanding that, you HAD to be interested in it, and you would learn it - quite a guy.
Another really good instructor was one in Military Science back in my sophomore year - this guy was a tanker, and on Patton's birthday he took some liberties with his uniform, not exactly like George C. Scott in the movie but close enough. And one evening he taught us a course on explosives and demolition, had a lot of good props, sort of acted unstable like he was about to blow the whole room of us up..
I have often thought that somebody should teach a "motorhead math" course based on HP Books "Auto Math Handbook" Auto Math Handbook HP1020 AutoSuperMart . com to high school kids, probably you would get a mostly male audience but some of the girls are interested too...
Interesting? So WHY do I have to select English when I go to the ATM or call for any kind of service? If spanish isn't spoken that commonly, why do so may systems default to spanish of you don't choose English?
Given that we are printing street signs in spanish and defaulting to spanish for support calls, I thought it was more common than that.
If you are calling a bank with branch offices throughout the US, e.g. Citibank, they will likely have one voice interface...more cost effective. If the French speakers that used to dot New Hampshire and Louisiana were 100x as large and located in the major population states, then perhaps banks might include French as a third option.
Surely, the existence of that option does not bother you...so trivial...
Defaulting to Spanish? Specifics? I have never once experienced that.
Street signs in Spanish? Where are you? My mother lives in a neighborhood that has had a large Hispanic population in California for quite some time. Not a single sign in Spanish. Now, if you are in LA, San Diego, Vegas, Miami, etc. then perhaps one might see something like that. But it is not a national issue.
BTW, I am fervently against the idea of spending tax payer dollars on Spanish signs, foreign language ballots, etc. I am also against niqabs and burqas on driver's licenses or in areas in which dress codes are to be enforced. America will collapse under mandated exceptionalism.
That said, if you as a shop owner have clientele that can be better attracted via special accommodations, then go for it. And in fact, I think people are economically foolish for not doing so.
As a NYC public school student who's entering the 12th Grade in the Fall I'm not surprised about Science, I didn't have a Science class until the 6th grade and even then it was like a joke, In High School it was a little more serious but its not considered as important as English & Social Studies even Math wasn't really as important as English & Social Studies.
I know many people of different ages who had difficulty in Math though.
Street signs in Spanish? Where are you? My mother lives in a neighborhood that has had a large Hispanic population in California for quite some time. Not a single sign in Spanish. Now, if you are in LA, San Diego, Vegas, Miami, etc. then perhaps one might see something like that. But it is not a national issue.
I think some people forgot that a good part of the west was part of Mexico before it was part of the US (not to mention, Spanish colonization). Many of the Spanish street names, city names, etc come from that period.
Unsurprisingly the US is lagging in Math and science.
It does not help that the national education association appears to not understand basic economics. To explain why Math and Science instructors should not get paid more than other less difficult subjects to staff they have this to say:
"Simply being a teacher of a hard-to-staff subject does not equate with effective instruction, and therefore, should not be rewarded in-and-of-itself through a salary differential," the organization says in a position statement."
Way to miss the point! Whether the teachers are more effective instructors is irrelevant if the current pay is not enough to attract them. Of course, the real reason so many are against it is because it may lower the salaries of over supplied subjects like History, English etc which (sadly) make up the majority of the teachers at your typical high school. Self interest, gotta love this country. Everyone wants free cheese.
I don't think that the US is failing in the most important area which is innovation. I have been in global competition with both engineers and scientists for the better part of the last decade and can say with confidence when it comes to ideas we still come up #1.
I will say that teachers should be tested frequently and those that are not competent should be fired. The pay equity should reflect that of industry and good teachers should be given benefits. It isn't just poor teaching in science and math, it is acceptance of poor teaching in general and poor parenting that have put us in our current position.
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Just kidding...
If spanish isn't spoken that commonly, why do so may systems default to spanish of you don't choose English?
I hate the cutesy stuff but you have to do it frequently enough to keep their attention. Yeah, I do mole day 
. Stuff like that helps in the long run. 
