Tuesday, November 25, 2008
I.D.E.A Research Project
Our research project, as of know, will be constructing a radio show dialogue. The topic of the conversation will be to discuss important social, political, moral and economic issues regarding undocumented students in public school systems. Please leave any suggestions you have.
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4 comments:
I think your topic is not only interesting but also important. I take this issue seriously since I have been working in the Madison School District for 3 1/2 years at an after school program. The issue of educating children of illegal immigrants is something I have seen and dealt with personally. It is easy for American citizens to become biased and claim that these students are increasing the cost of education. This bias once affected the parents at my school so much that they formed two separate PTA groups. The caucasian parents openly expressed their dislike for the minority parents and were unable to cooperate for the benefit of their children. It is such a shock to me that these parents did not think about their actions and the affects on their children.
We need to realize that immigrant families are all around us. Children are our future, whether they were born in America or not. Immigrant families came to the United States for a better life and the education of their children should be important to us. These children will grow up and become working adults in the United States. I see how much harder these children have to work. Some will start in school without knowing English and are expected to complete the same tasks as everyone else. They need to work twice as hard to keep up and teachers should be there to help them. Teachers should be encouraging education and not denying children because it will cost citizens more money.
As I have already stated, I think this topic is extremely important. It could benefit your project to interview immigrant families to get a personal account of their experiences. I know that it is very easy to calculate costs, but we also need to remember that there are people involved. People that are trying to make a better life for their children.
Please check out our book, and website, Underground Undergrads.
We are a group of undocumented students at UCLA advocating for the passage of the DREAM Act in 2009.
Honestly, this is an issue I have never thought about prior to your group presentation on Thursday. Since illegal people living within U.S. borders has been an increasing problem, for both supporters and condemners, I think that your choice of this topic is very relevant to the times and could hopefully be extremely useful in finding the solution to this growing problem.
I really respected that as a group I.D.E.A. admitted to needing more research in some areas, but also that the group seemed well educated in the broad cases of the subject. I liked the initial introduction of the precedent setting legal case, but I guess I sort of lost how the outcome has affected present-day cases. If that could be clarified, it would be a great building bock on an already sturdy foundation.
Thinking more about your project choice, I guess I am not exactly sure where I stand. Consciously I am an adamant supporter of every child receiving a useful, unbiased, and well-rounded education and also for every child to have a safe home to grow up in under the supervision and with the love of their parent(s) or legal guardian(s). I am sure there is a better way of dealing with illegal parents and/or deporting them, rather than to just take them out of the house, leaving children, in a sense, orphaned in a country that is not their native culture.
But then on the other hand, I disagree with people living here illegally. If they are seeking asylum or are refugees and the U.S. won’t take them in, that is completely a different issue because they, as refugees, have the right to asylum in the country of their choice, as stated in the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights. But, if these people are living here more by choice, not because they are fleeing persecution or oppression, I do think that they should seek a visa, citizenship, or even look to returning to their home country. I almost hate saying this, because morally I wish everyone seeking U.S. citizenship could be granted it, but then the legal part of my mind tells me that it just isn’t possible. But, what about the children? And also, who becomes an illegal resident by choice?
I hope that however the law is written, or is already written, it specifically states how children who are U.S. citizens but have non-citizen parents will be dealt with. Personally I think it would be best if those adults could be given citizenship, so as to better the life of the child and not to displace the family, thus tearing them apart. In the U.S. we are told over and over that the family structure and the influence of parents greatly affects what type of adults children grow up to be. If we separate families, we are hypocrites, disregarding our own teaching.
I’m really interested in seeing the outcome of this project. I really like how you have based your research in how it is affecting Madison, and I hope that your findings here will lead into how this concern is dealt with nationally and possibly internationally.
This is the first time this issue has been brought to my attention, in which case I commend I.D.E.A for engaging in a topic that draws interest and concern from an undiscovered ground. Still my initial reaction was hesitantly in disagreement after hearing the argument in full detail. I was unsure as to what the rhetorical purpose of the project was. I felt I became aware of the issue but was persuaded to oppose the issue simply because I felt no call to significance for myself. I understood the problem created for the children both citizen and illegal of immigrant parents, but I felt in opposition to the issue because I felt no push to gain my support as to why I should support immigrant education. Therefore to better engage an audience member like myself I would suggest creating a stronger ethos as a group and why each member individual thinks this research is important and then pathetically appealing the cause to a listener who pays taxes and is a citizen and doesn't feel they should pay towards an illegal child’s education.
Yes, education is important and no child should be derived of it, but if they illegal immigrate to the U.S. then it seems arguably they would illegally be getting an education and the government is spending a lot of unnecessary money on it if indeed they arrest illegal parents anyways while their child is at school.
So, I guess the project still remains unclear because the problem is evidently clear; still the possible resolution is not. The gains that will accumulate from this research should be notified. In addition to further establishing a relative concern for your audience, any form of more recent statistics would be helpful and any records of successful accounts of immigrant children receiving a worthy education.
On a supportive understanding, the case in regards to citizen children with illegal parents is a matter of liability. Those students have no control over the prosecution of their parents and as citizens have no limitations to the education they should receive and in which case a bias is unfair toward the children. It is a sticky situation when we consider the future of these citizen children that may be deprived of an education. This may be the strongest point in the research as Bucky mentioned it effects our local community would build a very influential audience.
This project will be effective if it continues to research and develop a distinct cause and purpose behind the informative base that has already been laid.
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