The Sacramento Bee today ran a huge story on the role of native Hawaiians in the establishment of Sacramento; how many married Native Americans and have now begun a local tribal casino, and their interest in the present effort in Congress to provide rights that native Americans have to native Hawaiians.
It’s really amazing stuff.
What does this have to do with English Language Learners?
We have a number of Pacific Islanders at our school, and I think this information is going to garner a whole lot of interest from them. And, as I’ve written in earlier posts, I’m always pleasantly surprised at just how interested other ELL’s are in stories related to their peers from other cultures.
The Sacramento Bee may have run an interesting article, nevertheless, when ever I hear mention of that paper a shudder ripples through me because of a presentation at the Zocalo lecture series held at the Los Angeles Central Library by Daniel Weintraub, columnist for that newspaper titled, “Is Arnold Schwarzenegger a Party of One?” Weintraub claimed that California per pupil spending ranked 15th or 16th in the nation, and not near the bottom. When I questioned him about that view, he made it clear that the question annoyed him and he answered that new data would come out that would support his claim. He spoke on April 8, 2008 just over one year ago and I have seen no new data yet. Sacramento Bee? Sacramento be gone along with Weintraub’s misinformation.