‎	‏A couple years ago,‭ ‬I worked in an after school program tutoring Elementary age students. I did my best to help them in whatever subject they were struggling in,‭ ‬but my strengths were in English and reading. I was recruited by one of the instructors to help a little boy named Adrian‭ (‬I believe he was in third or fourth grade‭)‬,‭ ‬who was having a lot of trouble reading. It dawned on me,‭ ‬that something was wrong‭; ‬he was having the most peculiar problems. Some letters he understood how to pronounce perfectly,‭ ‬others,‭ ‬not even close,‭ ‬it was the strangest thing. You know,‭ ‬he was of Latino decent,‭ ‬that I was sure,‭ ‬but the boy spoke perfect English. We struggled from there,‭ ‬until the day I met his mother. I was helping to babysitting‭ (‬for lack of a better term‭) ‬a few straggles while the rest of the after school group was on a field trip when his mother walked in. His mother didn't speak a word of English,‭ ‬only Spanish. With my very bad knowledge of Spanish‭ (‬I was only just learning‭)‬,‭ ‬we managed to communicate. But it was then that it hit me like a sack of bricks:‭ ‬Adrian could read fine,‭ ‬he just didn't know the English alphabet very well. I don't know if that revelation ever helped him much,‭ ‬but I do hope that he's doing better now.
‎	‏I tell that story,‭ ‬to address the problem of the language barrier in schools,‭ ‬especially here in California. I also tell it to prove that it's not always as obvious as we'd think. Even for a child who speaks perfect English,‭ ‬reading it can still be a huge obstetrical. I think everyone can agree that this problem exists,‭ ‬so what do we do‭? ‬In Adrian's case,‭ ‬the solution was fairly simple:‭ ‬tutoring in English reading,‭ ‬particularly the alphabet and pronunciations. But for the many children who barely speak English,‭ ‬the solution is much more complex. There is no one answer. The dual language system,‭ ‬mainstream immersion,‭ ‬private tutors,‭ ‬ESL classes,‭ ‬not one of these things,‭ ‬by itself,‭ ‬will fix this problem. The key lies in combining all of the above‭!‬
	First of all,‎ ‏the dual language system is a great idea. Not just for children who's first language is Spanish,‭ ‬but for all children. ‭“‬Children in two-way bilingual education programs have been found to outperform their peers academically.‭” ‬A lot of fear surrounds this idea,‭ ‬that it's a waste of resources,‭ ‬and that the majority of children in schools will reap no benefit. But that's false. If we were to apply these sorts of programs in the classroom as the rule,‭ ‬rather than the exception,‭ ‬all children would benefit from it. How do we go about this though‭? ‬Do we require all teachers to be bilingual‭? ‬No. That would be unreasonable and slightly unrealistic. However,‭ ‬I do think that there is no reason we can't have special Aids,‭ ‬tutors,‭ ‬whatever you want to call them,‭ ‬who are bilingual.