Teach parents English

Texas' Dallas School Board is considering forcing public school principals to learn Spanish or lose their jobs.

Trustees say poor communications between English-speaking school chiefs and Spanish-speaking parents are making it difficult to educate Hispanic pupils, who comprise about 43 percent of Dallas' school population.

But haven't board members got it backward?

Shouldn't the parents be learning English? There's nothing wrong with encouraging principals or teachers to learn Spanish if they wish, but to compel them to is wrong. This is an English-speaking nation, and immigrants should be adopting our language, not the other way around.

A two-language, or multi-language, culture produces social and ethnic fissures that are difficult to deal with. Look at the prob- lems Canada has holding together its English-speaking and French-speaking populations.

The United States has managed to stay united in good part because we have been a one-language country. Programs at any government level that undermine English as the national language are aiding and abetting the balkanization of our society. Nothing good can come from that.

Historically, immigrants have managed to learn English be- cause that was the only way they could make the most of their opportunities and fulfill the American dream. The Dallas PTA understands this, and is urging that, instead of making principals learn Spanish, that the parents be provided a way to learn Eng-lish.

After all, if their children can do it, the parents certainly ought to be able to as well.