The right direction

There have been many debates about whether or not bilingual education should become a standard part of American eduacation. While most middle and high schools in the U.S. offer foriegn language classes, most do not go beyond a second year level. Some argue that the people in this country should not learn another language because they feel that they would be advocating illegal immigration and have a strong sense of misguided patriotism. Others take into consideration they growing latino population and overall educational benefits for children younger than 10 and decide to send their children to a growing number of bilingual taught schools throughout America.

The results are in. It appears that here in the state of Kentucky, one of the only bilingual imersion shcools that teaches courses in both English and Spanish is showing incredible signs of educational effectiveness. Lexington has 3 of the top 10 elementary schools as far as mathmatics and english testing are concerned, of those 3 only one also teaches a foriegn language. While Math and English remain the most important facits of American public education, Maxwell is able to teach the importance of not only language but diverstiy as well. Since 1987 Lexington's Maxwell Spanish Immersion Elementary School has been teaching grades K-5 in the Fayette County district. Maxwell is among the few public elementary schools in Kentucky to receive a distinguished GreatSchools Rating of 10 out of 10. If the shchool is able to teach Math, English ,and Science effectively not to mention better than most other public schools, along with a foreign language why do we not see more schools similar to Maxwell.