Loyola High School Peace

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Loyola High School Peace Justice Coalition

• Tower of Babel Revisited

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(No Transcript)
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Student Perspective

• Joey Mezzatesta
• Jonathan Alton
• Ernesto Hernandez

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Immigration in America

• In 1900, when the U.S. population was 76 million,
  there were an estimated 500,000 Hispanic
  immigrants.
• Since 2000, legal immigrants to the United States
  number approximately 1 million per year in a
  population of 300 million.

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Languages in Schools

• Over 1.5m or 35.4 of all students enrolled in
  public schools are also enrolled in LEP
• Its not just Spanish!
• Top 15 languages spoken in public schools
• Arabic, French, Swahili, Farsi, Cantonese,
  Vietnamese, Hmong, Pilipino, Khmer, Korean,
  Armenian, Mandarin, Lao, Russian, Punjabi, Mien
• Proposition 227 Teachers in California are not
  allowed to speak in a foreign language to a
  student in a classroom

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Recent Actions in Washington

• Bushs idea of a National Anthem
• Bill to make English official language
• Immigration Reform in Congress halted by language
  problems

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Economic Standpoint

• Immigrants are 11 of the workforce in America
• About 14 million foreign-born U. S. residents
  VOLUNTARILY told the Census Bureau in 1990 that
  they had limited or no English proficiency

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New Testament Reading

• Matthew Chait
• Acts of the Apostles Pentecost

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Discussion What is the just response?

• Have you had any experiences similar to ours?
  Share
• What did you do in response?
• How did this affect you and the people you were
  trying to help?
• In Los Angeles, Spanish is very important to
  know What language issues do people in other
  parts of the U.S. face?
• How do we, who are committed to serving others,
  overcome language barriers to best serve
  immigrants?
• How do we meet the language needs of this
  linguistically diverse population?
• What is the socially just response?
• Does success in the United States require
  English?
• Majority of Americans speak only one language
• Where does this leave us?