>Yes, "foreign" parents may want their children out of bilingual education
>but only because simply accented or idiomatically scewy speech often
>registers as backward speech in the mind of racists.
At the natoinal university here in Cochabamba, there is instruction in French and English (kein Deutsch!), but no Aymara or Quechua. This embrace of European langauge is emminently practical, and also contributes to the perpetuation of some very pernicous racism (in the manner Rakesh's vivid illustration points out).
Now the practical stuff: what to do in the shitty schooling systems today? I could talk about the importance of negotiatng between languages; translation as a metphor for globalized, post-modern daily practice; even the comparative adavantages in the job market of being bi-lingual ... but fat lot of good that does in the face of classrooms where the modus operandi is pop in a video and run so as to not have to deal with the kids (Christine Petersen's comment).
Tom
Tom Kruse / Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia Tel/Fax: (591-42) 48242 Email: tkruse at albatros.cnb.net