arrepentida

from Bilingual Education: History, Politics, Theory, and Practice, by James Crawford.
"According to a 1969 Senate report on Indian education, in the 1850s these (Cherokee) schools 'used bilingual materials to such an extent that Oklahoma Cherokees had a higher English literacy level than the white populations of either Texas or Arkansas.'"
He goes on to note that, after the confiscation of the Cherokee's printing press and the the takeover of the tribal schools by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, their children were now being educated in english-only environments. Here is an interesting stat: "by 1969 40 percent of Cherokee adults in eastern Oklahoma were functionally illiterate, and up to 75 percent of their children were dropouts,... but virtually all of them spoke english."

I asked Becky, one of the first grade bilingual teachers from last year, to lend me said book so that i could know about what i'm doing. she also told me that studies have shown that children are much more successful academically when they are first taught in their native language if they have little command of english to begin with. which makes sense; children at those ages are still learning how to learn. Their brains and thinking skills, etc. are still developing. For the longest time I thought about my own experience in learning another language. But i started learning spanish already having reading and thinking and reasoning skills - i already knew how to learn, so i could use that to my advantage in acquiring another language.

so on to other things. i am trying to become less of a bullshitter and be more real. the thing is, sometimes i feel like i am a different person around different people. one person has described me as "orgullosa (proud), introvertida, y exigente (demanding)," yet around another i try everything in my power not to be this way. this is why i have decided to allow a certain person to read this (that is if, in fact, he can actually see this page from where he is); it's kind of freaky exposing myself like this but this is the only way i can be faithful to myself: if i present myself honestly to other people. sometimes i am wishy-washy and tell people what i think they want to hear, or what i want them to hear so as to leave them with what i think will be an impression of me favorable to my objectives. for example, i can be more liberal with some people and more conservative with others. good example is when i was in argentina. i was visiting some conocidos in Salta, who are a military family and i think one of the great-great-grandpersons is an Uriburu (in other words, one of those old upper class familias de apellidos largos). anyway, guillermo, the dad, asked me if i thought there would be war. knowing that these people are conservative and not having my mind made up about it yet, i gave them a right-leaning answer. i could have just told them i didn't know what to think, but that may have left an awkward situation or some shit like that; i don't think i rationalized it come to think of it.

This is my high school's homecoming weekend and I am working as a security guard with my mom (she works at the high school). in total i believe i will be working between 14 and 16 hours, and at the rate they pay security i'll have a very nice looking paycheck in a couple of weeks. For those of you who aren't familiar with the concept of homecoming, here is a short explanation. the whole point of it used to be that alumni of the high school would come back from college for a weekend, with the high school's football team playing a game saturday afternoon, celebrated by a dance on saturday night after the game. at BHS they have a girl's football game friday night, followed by a dance in the parking lot and a huge bonfire (though i think they've stopped that). then saturday, game, and that evening the dance. usually there is a theme for homecoming; this year at BHS it's "haunted homecoming" so this should be interesting. I worked the disco dance last year and was scandalized by how short everyone's miniskirts and hotpants were! i just kept thinking, just wait till you're in college and fat! at least for homecoming they try to dress it up a bit.

that is all for now. i must say i am enamorada de la voz de Beto Cuevas (of La Ley) and many other things chilean.

and something else: today i gave some kids from the 2nd grade bilingual their spelling test. the last word? bolas. i nearly laughed as i tried to make up a sentence with the word bolas without remembering all those slang terms that involve it!