We were = we’re?

Bryanna Bevens:

Several years ago I participated, along with other California State Assembly staffers and members, in a literacy promotion program for elementary students in the California public school system.

I visited a second-grade classroom in Fresno. Before I sat down to read a book to the kiddies, I took the abbreviated tour of the facilities.

A chart on the wall demonstrated the proper use of contractions:

You are = you’re

I am = I’m

We were = we’re

I looked quizzically at the teacher and asked "You sure about this last one? Shouldn’t it read we are?"

Speaking with an exceptionally strong Mexican accent, the teacher assured me that I was wrong: "Oh no, it’s we were."

I know I have an inane tendency to fixate on minutiae. But come on.

"Not to be a pain, but I am positive it’s we are" I said.

Then she said (and I really wish I was making this up) "I’ve been teaching English for four years now—I think I understand the use of compound words."

Whoa…pump the brakes, turbo! Compound words? Teaching English?

"English…you sure about that?" I asked. Not sensing my sarcasm, she nodded.

I took a moment to make a note to self: My future children will not attend public school even if I have to sell my blood or a kidney to afford private education.

Side note: I have since changed my mind, but more on that in another column.

As it turned out, she was an English as a Second Language [ESL] teacher. This grammar school had such a large number of non-English speaking students that ESL teachers worked in regular classrooms as opposed to those designated for "special education."

Here’s my question: Are we lowering the quality of education for English-speaking students by hiring teachers primarily for their ability to teach Spanish…as opposed to their ability to teach period?

Look at the Bush Administration’s No Child Left Behind Act, passed in January 2002.

By 2014, NCLB standards will supposedly close the learning gap between minority groups and their peers—and achieve comparable test scores in math, science, reading and language.

The unmentionable danger: schools will dumb down the real education of native-born English speaking students, who are more likely to pass the standardized tests, and focus their efforts on minority and non-English speaking students so they won’t seem so "behind" in their testing.

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