When raising a bilingual child, the question that will keep you “questioning” is what to do about school.

Schooling is a powerful socialization technique and what you choose for your child will impact his identity, language and your goals for your child. My family is fortunate enough to live in a large urban district with several appealing programs for our child. These programs include Bilingual or Dual Language 1-Way will all Spanish speakers learning Spanish and English, Dual Language 2-Way with both English and Spanish speakers learning Spanish and English and World Language Immersion English speakers learning Spanish and English. We are also in a district that has excellent, but English only Montessori and IB programs.

From previous posts, you know that my child is a Spanish speaker, a first language speaker of Spanish who is also influenced by trips to Target and the museum where English is spoken. He does know some English, but as he says “el espanol es mi lenguaje mami” (Spanish is my language), which means this is what his heart speaks to me and his father, brother and grandma.

It is critical to the identity and culture of my child and our family that he be in a program which elevate the status of his home language, while learning English, and provides him with meaningful and long term opportunities to develop the Cognitive Academic Language in both Spanish and English. It is also critical to my child’s success that he have opportunities to high levels inquiry, that he have choices and a voice in what and how he learns, and how he demonstrates that, and that he have an exceptional opportunity to develop his skills in science and math.

Do I fear he will not learn English, or that we will develop a substandard dialect of English? Do I wonder if a day will come that I will have to engage with him in English? Do I worry that Dual Language programs are rigorous, on grade level in Spanish and able to achieve true biliteracy in the academic content areas? Yes to all.

I have played many “if..then..” games in my mind, like “if he gets into Montessori, then it is okay if his education is not in Spanish”….since he did not get in, that was that, no more worry.

I have chosen a Dual Language 2-Way program for him that will offer him at least 8 years of consistent programing where Spanish will be used for learning 50% or more of the time. My child is 4, and is starting to read, his Spanish Language is widening in depth and specificity in vocabulary and expression, and he is also making cross linguistic connections and noticing cognates. This year, I am really happy, and we will likely be revisiting our choices annually as he grows.

I’d like to hear from you.
What have you chosen for your child?
What have you noticed about the development of his home languages as a result?
Do you have concerns, how are you dealing with them?
What do you feel like you might be “giving up”?
How can we as parents strive/govern our school for our children’s learning to not be an either/or equation?