Parenting and Spanish Dual Language Education Blog 1

As a parent, getting the education in place for my children is one of the most important things my wife and I can do for our kids. There's no limit to what a child's future holds if you open the door to all the possibilities. It's almost simple; give love, guidance, and instill confidence to their little bodies and watch them take off.  Nurture their curiosity with  routine trips to the library, and open the door to limitless imagination encounters through literature.  By following this recipe, there is a seamless transition to the education system and without surprise, the little Eagles begin to soar early on.

Nicholas Kristof wrote about the eroding American Education in his article, Our Broken Escalator. The topic of his article is epic in its problem description. The connection to my thoughts are that I passionately agree that education is the escalator to opportunity. It's the American Dream Enabler. 

We find that the foundation for our children is cemented is Reading, Writing, Mathematics, Science, History, Social Studies, and all the educational fundamentals where there are no shortcuts. Moreover, we also believe that these fundamentals are important to learn in a dual language immersion.

As a Hispanic family with cultural roots with ancestry from Mexico traceable to the 1800s, we found that enrolling our children in a bilingual education program was opening significant opportunities for them in culture and overall development. In addition to the educational positives of bi-literacy, there are several high achieving results when learning additional languages. In the blog, Surprising Advantages of Bilingual Education, Bridget Bentz talks about these benefits.  The quick summary is that it makes young brains resilient and problem solving machines. There's no  downside to learning a new language, especially when the dual language program follows research based methodologies. The authority on dual language programs is the Center for Applied Linguistics and they publish The Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education.

We found a program in El Cajon, California that met our family goals in 2012 and I want to share the journey with you.

The rest of my blog will address educational leadership from parents, school districts (Superintendent and Board of Directors), Principals and Teachers.  Please stay tuned.