"Aria" by Richard Rodriguez

"Aria" by Richard Rodriguez captures what it is like to grow up in a spanish speaking home but have to integrate into an english speaking society.

Rodriguez says, "Supporters of bilingual education today imply that students like me miss a great
deal by not being taught in their family's language" (34)
This quote is important because it's not how Rodriguez feels about bilingual education. During his article he addresses the fact that if his teachers and other classmates would have spoken spanish in the classroom he would have never gotten comfortable speaking english in public.

"At last, seven years old, I came to believe what had been technically true
since my birth: I was an American citizen." (36)
This quote had  a lot of value to me. Although Richard had always been an american citizen he only felt that way after he was able to communicate fluently in english. It's easy to make non-native english speakers feel this way but I always remind myself that America is a melting pot and many different cultures come here to be free from what ever they are experiencing. Not every person that comes to America will speak english right away but that doesn't make them any less American. Richard should have felt american his whole life regardless of what language he speaks.

"Today I hear bilingual educators say that children lose a degree of individual-
ity' by becoming assimilated into public society." (38)
Richard explains this quote by talking about private individuality and public individuality. In order to achieve public individuality one must diminish their private individuality. I feel as though there shouldn't have to be two different types of individuality. A person should be allowed to have different parts of themselves. In this case a person can speak two languages openly without having to hide it or keep one at a lower level when in public. Individuality
 is about being true to who you are and that includes different cultures and languages.


Below is a link to an article that explains 5 reasons that Bilingual Education should be allowed
https://www.theedadvocate.org/bilingual-education-5-reasons-it-should-be-required/

Class notes: This article gave me insight on the struggles of being a bilingual student. A lot of my friends here at RIC are bilingual and communicate to their parents in a language other than english. However, they've told me that they now feel more comfortable speaking english than their 1st language. I think it's interesting that America as a society force children and parents to integrate into our society by only speaking one language publicly. I believe that it is important to embrace what makes you different and celebrate it. I wish that bilingual education was more popular when I was growing up that way I could communicate with more people and relate to them more.