When people think of minorities it is often African Americans that come to mind; it often seems like they are the only minority people are concerned about trying to help gain equal respect. Hispanics are the largest growing minority in America with just over 10 million Hispanic students enrolled in public schools, yet the only time Hispanics are brought up in the news is when it’s about immigration.
Hispanic students often face the same racial prejudices and financial issues as African American children at school with the added problem of a language barrier. The public school system fails Hispanic students because they don’t give them the resources and support they need to compete with the Caucasian children in school. Most of the students who begin their schooling speaking only Spanish are never given help to learn English, but simply have to pick it up as they go along. ⅓ of all Hispanic students perform below grade average due to poor English skills and a low income households.
Hispanic children start kindergarten already at a disadvantage. Only 39% of all Hispanic children complete some sort of pre-kindergarten curriculum (like preschool) compared to the 59% of Caucasian and 66% of African American children.
If they are starting off already behind in school and having to combat a language barrier and poverty at home, it’s no wonder 59% of Hispanic children from the ages of 16-19 dropout of high school.
Hispanic children also must combat the hostility people have towards Hispanics. It’s not just students acting hostile towards other students, but also teachers who discriminated against Hispanic students. In Colorado, a Hispanic elementary student went to tell a teacher that they were injured, but the teacher dismissed them because they were not speaking English. This child later went to the hospital to receive stitches because of the substantial bleeding from their injury.
My grandmother, who is 100% Hispanic, raised her two kids (my father and aunt) to be white Americans. They spoke no Spanish at home and grew up feeling very little affiliation to the Latin culture. She said it was because when she started school she only spoke Spanish, and they would hit your knuckles every time you spoke Spanish even though you knew nothing else. “You learned fast,” she would tell me and indeed she did; she was the first Hispanic women to graduate from her high school in New Mexico.
With Hispanic children making up such a large portion of the public school system, it is ridiculous for the government not to have resources and support set up to give these children a fighting chance in school. The government needs to help build programs to help support Hispanic students in America.
Hispanic students often face the same racial prejudices and financial issues as African American children at school with the added problem of a language barrier. The public school system fails Hispanic students because they don’t give them the resources and support they need to compete with the Caucasian children in school. Most of the students who begin their schooling speaking only Spanish are never given help to learn English, but simply have to pick it up as they go along. ⅓ of all Hispanic students perform below grade average due to poor English skills and a low income households.
Hispanic children start kindergarten already at a disadvantage. Only 39% of all Hispanic children complete some sort of pre-kindergarten curriculum (like preschool) compared to the 59% of Caucasian and 66% of African American children.
If they are starting off already behind in school and having to combat a language barrier and poverty at home, it’s no wonder 59% of Hispanic children from the ages of 16-19 dropout of high school.
Hispanic children also must combat the hostility people have towards Hispanics. It’s not just students acting hostile towards other students, but also teachers who discriminated against Hispanic students. In Colorado, a Hispanic elementary student went to tell a teacher that they were injured, but the teacher dismissed them because they were not speaking English. This child later went to the hospital to receive stitches because of the substantial bleeding from their injury.
My grandmother, who is 100% Hispanic, raised her two kids (my father and aunt) to be white Americans. They spoke no Spanish at home and grew up feeling very little affiliation to the Latin culture. She said it was because when she started school she only spoke Spanish, and they would hit your knuckles every time you spoke Spanish even though you knew nothing else. “You learned fast,” she would tell me and indeed she did; she was the first Hispanic women to graduate from her high school in New Mexico.
With Hispanic children making up such a large portion of the public school system, it is ridiculous for the government not to have resources and support set up to give these children a fighting chance in school. The government needs to help build programs to help support Hispanic students in America.
I can really relate to this because my mother went threw this same situations. She had to learn English by herself. Although she still takes pride in her Mexican Ethnicity, she still receives prejudice.
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