Rodriguez Talking Points

In the article Aria, Richard Rodriguez (a native Spanish speaker) tells the story of how as a child he was taught in English. His teachers encouraged English speaking at home in order to get Rodriguez and his brother and sister more acquainted with the language. Although he quickly became comfortable as an English speaker in school (which he calls his "public" identity), his family life did not continue to flourish as it had when they spoke Spanish. Rodriguez and his brother and sister failed to talk as much with their parents because their familiar family language, what Rodriguez calls their "private" language, was lost. Rodriguez's parents had difficulty understanding their children in English, so the children found it easier to refrain from talking to them rather than sending a misunderstood message. Rodriguez makes it clear that maintaining the native language at home is an important part of life for a child who's native language is not English. Rodriguez mentions bilingual education at the end of the article. The following links are related to the topic of bilingual education.
Article on bilingual education : http://www.ericdigests.org/1997-3/bilingual.html
Video promoting bilingual education: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BUBTa9yYS4
Video of debate on whether bilingual education is effective: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0nbvcoFVTA
Video on The International School- bilingual education for native English speaking students: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Juz3bQyMqBw