This last legislative session I passed a resolution honoring the contributions of people we today would call "Czechs" who migrated to Texas and have contributed to the rich cultural fabric of our state. My nephews and nieces you see are Americans with a Czech-Mex ancestry and I wanted to do something to remember the ancestry of their grandfather Frank Kohoutek who recently passed away.
In doing research I noted how German and Czech children were punished for speaking anything other than English. How sad I thought that most Texans today with those ancestries can not speak the language of their fathers. In Europe nearly everyone speaks an additional language to their own. There they embrace the economic and social value of speaking more than one language.
Today more than 51 percent of Texas elementary school children speak a language other than English, and seven of the 10 largest communities in Texas have a majority population that is non-Anglo. The policy if imposed in Texas would surely result in a number of suspensions. Half of our public schools would be empty.
Don't get me wrong, there is utility in sharing a common culture and a common language but to be punished because you are fortunate to have an expansion on the norm, I simply don't agree. Fear of the other, fear of others who may not be part of our tribe may be an instinctual defense mechanism that worked 10,000 years ago, but in our diverse modern social order, there is little room for this.
My generation was punished for speaking Spanish in school. In my particular case, well meaning Catholic school nuns wanted to "mainstream" my generation of young Hispanics into society. Many children were firmly discouraged or had their hands slapped if Spanish came out of their mouths. That generations parents believed that learning "English" was a ticket to success. I would not disagree, but why at the expense of learning a second language. Believe me learning one does not exclude the other.
For those who fear a wave of people who are different, fear not, we are not so different from you. A colleague once told me, "my people are afraid of your people." Why I asked? She responded, "Because you do not speak our language!" I told her that all I ever spoke to her was English. English is in fact my first language. She said, "not you, other Hispanics." I told her to note my son's generation, most of his friends speak little if any Spanish. Like other ethnic groups many younger generation, second and third generation Hispanics do not retain their Spanish language.
But I think of my brothers in Europe, is an Englishman any less English because he speaks German or Spanish? No, then why the American hang-up with language in a diverse society.
Fear not, for humanity has encountered this many times before. Romans once refused to allow neighboring tribes to partake in the "Roman dream." In part it was because of language and cultural differences. Today, Etruscan, Gaul, Hun, Roman they are all what we presently call Italians. How silly it looks in hindsight.
The policy of Texas public schools is to teach most regular classes in English. But if, during recess, a child is asked a question in Spanish, it is almost instinctual and certainly polite, to respond in the same language.
The economic future of this state in part is trade with our Southern neighbors. This means it is economically important that Spanish be learned as a second language.
Far from those painful years my generation experienced on this subject of language many parents are now seeing the value they pass to their children when they can speak another language. My granddaughter, Chelsea, whose first language is English, is attending a school where half a day is in English and the second half is in Spanish.
This may terrify some whose instinctual defense mechanism is up, but be warned my brother -- The future does not belong to those who fear the night. It belongs to those who can illuminate it.
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