Dual language classes coming to a school near you

Is America a melting pot or a tapestry of cultures?

It's an elemental question, and one I didn't expect to be confronted with, but I was recently.

I thought every American bought into the melting pot notion. I mean, isn't it kind of standard thinking -- that whole E Pluribus Unum thing?

Apparently not. I seem to have misunderestimated, to borrow a Bushism, the level of obtuseness that can come from the political left. Or maybe I've never fully realized just how differently some people view this country.

I was thinking these thoughts as I sat at a local school board meeting in Bedford, N.Y., late Wednesday being lectured on the melting pot concept by an "immigration rights activist." The idea of American assimilation, she instructed, isn't only antiquated, it's offensive, thank you very much.

I somehow missed that memo.

The activist's remarks, which were delivered with audible "harrumphs," followed an observation I made about the dual language learning curriculum spreading its tentacles throughout the New York State school system, including at my daughter's elementary school. I suggested that dual language learning might not be in the best interest of immigrant communities, not if success in this country is an objective. Shouldn't we be hastening the assimilation process, I asked, not inhibiting it? Isn't learning English with the greatest possible alacrity the fundamental goal for all first generation Americans?

Like I said, it didn't go over well with the activist.

The exchange was instructive, though, if only because it forced that core question: Is America a melting pot or a tapestry of cultures? Should we be encouraging multiculturalism in the United States -- that is, separateness among us along ethnic and language lines -- or the traditional idea of a single, cultural American? There's a big difference between the two, with the former being a radical departure from the historical American experience. But that's exactly what's being pushed here in New York, although probably unintentionally.

Under New York law, school districts that have any single classroom building with 20 students speaking the same language other than English are now required to have dual language instruction. Not ESL where English is taught, mind you, but dual language classes in core subjects -- math, social studies and science.

My school district is going all the way with the concept, to the point where Spanish-speaking students -- and English-speaking students who wish to participate -- are being taught every subject half the time in Spanish and half the time in English. There is a choice. You can opt in or out of the program, but most Spanish-speaking students are naturally going to gravitate toward instruction in a language they already understand, almost assuredly slowing their English learning. Almost assuredly slowing their assimilation.

Expect to see more of this. As the immigrant population grows, more and more of New York school districts will be exposed to mandated dual language programs, and more and more communities, I would argue, will see two distinct cultures developing, one mostly Spanish-speaking and one English-speaking.

I used to think that people who advocated English as the official U.S. language were being hyperbolic. Not anymore. Suddenly, I think we need to consider it here in New York, before it's too late. For the good of everyone.

William F. B. O'Reilly is a Republican consultant.