Se Habla Espagnol?

So, I was just checking out Google News, and saw an interesting article. Here's the gist of it:

A Florida Senator has introduced legislation that would change the language spoken in classrooms of nearly 600,000 students. Under Florida Senate Bill S. 522, introduced by Sen. Les Miller, all Florida students in kindergarten through second grade would receive mandatory Spanish instruction beginning in 2007. Despite a serious lack of teachers and an even more serious lack of funding, Florida schools would be required to carry out the bilingual mandate, even for immigrant students from non-Spanish speaking nations.

So, I started thinking, I'm sure there will be some patriots out there freaking out about this when it hits the mainstream news. Or when they learn that their kids have to learn a second language.

They'll go on and on about how 'un-American' it is, and that it should be the other way around, that immigrants should have to learn our language instead of us having to learn theirs. If those immigrants want to be legal citizens, they do have to learn English. And the Department of Homeland Security is making a concerted effort right now to completely rid this country of illegal immigrants. So, in theory, we're just becoming a more progressive nation by requiring our students to learn Spanish. Hispanics are a majority in places like Los Angeles, and their numbers are rising fast in Florida, too.

Another good way of looking at it is like this: in many European countries, students have to learn their native language, plus English, plus the language of a neighboring country. Most Americans couldn't fathom the thought of having to learn three languages when growing up. In Canada, students are taught French at a very young age because there's a large number of Canadians whose primary language is en Francais.

I think this country's slow pace at adopting similar standards is kinda paradoxical when you think about it. We're supposed to be this big, proud melting pot where people can emigrate to be free. Many of them speak some English when they get there, but it would be helpful if more people they interacted with could speak their native language. Part of accepting this melting pot theory is that we all need to get along. Getting along requires communication. Bureaucracy requires communication. Shit, driving in this country requires you to know some English. But then you go to Tokyo, and all the street signs are in Japanese and English.

Is the problem that we're too proud? Are we too proud to acknowledge that somem people come to this country legally, but can't speak the language very well? These are people who we want to do business with, people who we want to contribute to our melting pot, to bring what they have to offer. But how can they do that if we refuse to work with them?

I think making bilingual education mandatory is a good idea, and I wish I could've started learning another language when I was young. About a year ago, I met a seven-year old whose parents are missionaries in Hungary. The kid was born there, and most of his life so far has been spent there. He fluently speaks English, Hungarian, French, Spanish, and Italian. Seven years old. I know that a big part of that phenomenon is environment and situation. But I think it's most important to note that he learned all these language when he was very young. That's when the brain is more of a sponge. So why not teach our young another language? I hope that one day they're teaching Spanish and Arabic in our schools. Makes sense to me.