Aria and Teaching Multilingual Children

The articles "Aria" by Richard Rodriguez and "Teaching Multilingual Children" by Virginia Collier are both wonderfully written pieces of work that argue completely different sides on the issue of teaching multilingual children in school.
At first i was a little unsure about what Richards point was. At the beginning of the article he was very back and forth on the idea of speaking English. All in the first two paragraphs he says, "Without question it would have pleased me to hear my teachers address me in Spanish when i entered the classroom...i would have trusted them and responded with ease," and "My first grade classmates could have become bilingual..." Both of these quotes show that Richard thought that having a bilingual classroom would have been a good idea for both him and his English speaking classmates. However, in the sentence before the latter quote he contradicts himself by saying, "what i needed to learn in school was that i had the right - and the obligation- to speak the public language of los gringos."
The entire article seams to have this same back and forth feeling about only speaking English. When his parents start to speak English he, himself, must have been feeling unsure about whether it was a good or bad thing because his family was loosing its closeness but , at the same time, they were able to open up to other people and become more social, comfortable, and welcome into the community. There are many examples that he gives about his family being uncomfortable around each other, not knowing what to say or what language to say it in but the example that stood out to me the most was when he said, "i no longer knew what words to use in addressing my parents...i would try to get their attention with eye contact alone." This is familiar to me because i have the same issue with my boyfriends parents. i have no idea what to call them because i don't want to over step my bounds with mom and dad, be disrespectful with their names or be uncomfortable and distant and call them Mr. and Mrs. Because of the relation i have with this example it hits me harder with the point he is making because i a not close at all with my boyfriends parents and could not imagine being so distant from my own parents that i dont know what to call them and a afraid to ask them what they'd feel comfortable being called.
another example that hit me is when he talks bout his father being called shy and his mother making excuses for his shyness. This relates back to when the teachers used to call Richard shy, saying, "that Richard seams especially timid and shy," when he really isn't shy, just uncomfortable, in an unfamiliar place much like his father being surrounded by unfamiliar language.
My assumption about this piece is that Richard is trying to say that it is best to teach strictly English in the classroom to allow students to better adapt. However through the examples and much of the text, "his voice summoned a deep longing," it is clear that you must be ready to give up a part of yourself in doing so. His final statement is, "So they do not realize that while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality. "
Colliers piece is arguing from a completely opposite side of the spectrum as Richards piece. She believes that children's cultural backgrounds and languages should be accepted into the classroom and lists things that should be done and why and how do get them done. She is a very professional sounding individual that seams to know what she is talking about. Both the way that the article is written and the information provided make Collier seam to be a very reliable source. I like a lot of the information and example of how things should be done, in particular letter F on page 224. It says, "The focus of thee whole conversation is on communication, not on grammatical form or pronunciation. also, on 225, "The critical distinction to maintain is between how children acquire the capacity to converse casually in a second language, and how they learn to become proficient students using second language. These two are entirely different processes." Even these small bits of information are so important and helpful. This one article is like a handbook on how to be a better teacher.
Collier strongly argues for the teaching, or perfecting of the child's home language before trying to teach them grammar and other skills in a second language. I cant find the quote but she says that it is easier for children to learn to be proficient in a second language after they have mastered their first language.
i believe that holding onto your own language is important in maintaining your identity. Collier says, "To dismiss the home language in literacy development instantly places immigrant children at risk." This is a sad statement because it is more often than not that children have bee forced to speak English and only English like in the "Aria" story. Another example from the text that reminded me of Aria was #2 on page 226. She says, "do not think of yourself as a remedial teacher expected to correct so- called "deficiencies" of your students. Richard was taught that his own language was not as good as English, he even felt at the beginning of the piece that he was unworthy of speaking the language. This same idea is seen in Colliers #3, she says, "Dont teach a second language in any way that challenges or seeks to eliminate the first language."
A great idea that Collier has is to "Provide a literacy development curriculum that is specifically designed for English language learners. This would be great for children, helping them learn a second language while still appreciating and valuing their own language. There are some school systems that have little helpful things like this set up, where children learning a second language are given special attention but none that i know of that are at the level that Collier is talking about. It would be so wonderful to see a type of curriculum that was specifically for English language learners but, sadly, i dont see it happening very soon. First, you would have to have a school system that had enough English learning children to set up this curriculum. you would need the money to set it up, you would need to find teachers that are fluent in the languages spoken and on top of it all, Collier states when referring to encouraging home language literacy that, "...some states forbid schools to offer these tools directly to children."
I read this specific article twice. The first time i was very bored and just wanted to hurry up and finish it because it is very clean cut and to the point, not flowered up like i like. However, the second time that i read it, i loved it and got very passionate about the subject. Smiling and nodding my head, trying to remember the good ideas for when im a teacher and, also, finding myself getting all worked up and upset when hearing things like '"...English reading skills in fourth graders who were not literate in their home language, were three years behind fourth graders who had three years of schooling in their home language before arriving in the U.S." and knowing that we are not doing much to help those children who are behind.
Collier is obviously saying that we need to make significant changes in the way that our school systems are set up in order to help immigrant children. She does a great job of stating her case and persuading the reader to make some changes and realize that changes need to be made.