Ernesto Caravantes: Best-selling Author and Speaker

Ernesto Caravantes' Visit with Chinatown Service Center's Youth Marked a Success

2010-02-10T03:14:00.000-08:00

"Educational, engaging and thought-provoking, he really helped us achieved our workshop goals of "bridging the gap" between youth of different background," says Danee Prasert, Senior Program Assistant Specialist of Chinatown Service Center.

Ernesto Caravantes, widely known as a Motivational Speaker and Best- Selling Author of "Clipping Their Own Wings," spoke to approximately 40 teens at the Chinatown Service Center in Los Angeles on February 05, 2010."

He provided something many adults fail to encourage from youth nowadays: the opportunity for young people to speak up, dialogue, and learn about one another," says Prasert. Ernesto highlighted the commonalities between the two cultures, shared his experiences of growing up, and educated the youth that as minorities, they have to empathize and help each other.

"The community of Chinatown is diverse and yet divided, despite the common backgrounds of our immigrant residents," says Prasert. "As a social service agency, Chinatown Service Center (CSC) would like to see the community become more solidified through stronger race relations.

"Ernesto's visit to the Chinatown Service Center was part of the Bridging the Gap (BTG) project, which strives to create social change in the community of Chinatown by building positive relationships between the disconnected cultures and people of Chinese and Hispanic descent.

Chinatown Service Center (CSC) is a non-profit social service agency that provides services to the disadvantage immigrant population in Chinatown and other nearby areas. It is the largest human service organization in the south of California that provides services in Spanish and various Chinese dialects. CSC's organization mission is to provide outstanding services and advocacy that promote better quality of life and equal opportunity for immigrants and other communities.

To schedule Ernesto Caravantes to speak at your company or next event, contact: dpc@dplump.com

About Ernesto Caravantes:

Ernesto Caravantes is a speaker, educator, best-selling author, and respected thought leader of his generation. He is also a counselor, and has appeared on numerous television news program and print media as a voice on education for minorities, race, gender, literacy, immigration, and cross cultural issues in America.

Ernesto Caravantes to Speak at the Chinatown Service Center - Los Angeles in February!

2010-01-24T07:47:00.000-08:00

Ernesto Caravantes, widely known as a Speaker and Best- Selling Author of "Clipping Their Own Wings," will speak at the Chinatown Service Center in Los Angeles on February 05, 2010.

"We are certain that Mr. Ernesto Caravantes' mission to motivate success in minorities will have the critical ability to lend a hand in assisting our community to bridge the cultural gap," says Danee Prasert, Senior Program Assistant Specialist, CSCLA.

Ernesto will highlight the commonalities between the two cultures, share his experiences of growing up, and educate the youth that as minorities, they have to empathize and help each other.

"The community of Chinatown is diverse and yet divided, despite the common backgrounds of our immigrant residents," says Prasert. "As a social service agency, Chinatown Service Center (CSC) would like to see the community become more solidified through stronger race relations. We hope that Mr. Ernesto Caravantes' visit to CSC's Youth Center (and essentially, the community of Chinatown) will help enlighten our youth generation to increase empathy and respect for one another's cultures. "

"I am honored to be invited to speak at the Chinatown Service Center for Los Angeles," says Ernesto. "My presentation will be part of the center's Bridging the Gap (BTG) project, which strives to create social change in the community of Chinatown by building positive relationships between the disconnected cultures and people of Chinese and Hispanic descent."

Chinatown Service Center (CSC) is a non-profit social service agency that provides services to the disadvantage immigrant population in Chinatown and other nearby areas. It is the largest human service organization in the south of California that provides services in Spanish and various Chinese dialects. CSC's organization mission is to provide outstanding services and advocacy that promote better quality of life and equal opportunity for immigrants and other communities.

To schedule Ernesto Caravantes to speak at your company or next event, contact dpc@dplump.com

About Ernesto Caravantes:
Ernesto Caravantes is a speaker, educator, best-selling author, and respected thought leader of his generation. He is also a counselor, and has appeared on numerous television news program and print media as a voice on education for minorities, race, gender, literacy, immigration, and cross cultural issues in America.

Ernesto Caravantes: Speaker, Author, Thought-Leader

2010-01-24T06:40:00.000-08:00

Ernesto is a speaker who is making a difference across the country. For more information on scheduling Ernesto to speak at your upcoming event, click here.

Ernesto Caravantes' Winter 2009 Newsletter

2009-12-22T06:11:00.000-08:00

CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE AND DOWNLOAD

For more information about Ernesto Caravantes, visit:

www.ernestocaravantes.com

Best-selling Author Explains His “Radical” Views

2009-12-09T07:21:00.000-08:00

Nearly six years ago, I set pen to paper and began to write a book. As a Mexican-American, I felt that something needed to be done to help the plight of Latino students who drop out of school in droves. I wanted to help culture to which I belong. When nearly half of the Latino student population drops out of high school, the entire country suffers as a result. These former students end up committing violent crimes, joining street gangs, or end up having several children out of wedlock. They also end up going on public assistance. You and I as taxpayers end up footing the bill. It drains the national and state economies of valuable resources.

However, when I decided to write Clipping Their Own Wings, I wanted to approach this problem from a different angle. I focused on the culture, and took the bold position of stating that it was the culture that was at the heart of the problem. In so doing, I put forth my proposition that the culture values other things over and above education. I was not stating that the culture couldn’t care less about education, but, rather, that other things, such as sheer survival, and family cohesion, pull rank over education. My book’s message was not placing any value judgment on this matter. We all have to survive and most of us place strong importance on family values. However, for some cultures, education is more important and more of a priority than it is for others. Plain and simple. And for those of us who are able to study the panoply of cultures living in our modern society, this should be rather self-evident.

I then decided to take an even more discerning view of the Mexican-American culture. I put together the series of essays that I compiled and published them as the book, The Mexican-American Mind. It came to attention of my readers that I was using words such as “lazy”, or “ignorant.” However, what was less known was that I was using terms to describe other people’s perceptions of the Mexican-American culture. Those terms are not necessarily representative of my own views of the people who comprise the culture. Many of my readers made the mistaken assumption that because such terms were being used in my books, they must be some indication of how I personally view Latin Americans in general, and Mexican-Americans in particular. Naturally, this caused much indignation, which I completely understand. Those are harsh terms. It is only natural that intelligent and hard-working Hispanic readers would feel incensed at seeing such adjectives being placed so strategically in front of their ethnic category.

Like with any large group of people, one is going to see the bell curve of mental and intellectual abilities in the Mexican-American population. On one end of the curve will be the outliers who are incredibly intelligent. On the other end will be the outliers who are incredibly slow. As usual, the bulk of the population will be somewhere in the middle. Thus, when I am speaking or writing in such over-reaching terms to describe a very large population, I use terms that attempt to capture, as accurately and as candidly as possible, public perceptions and popular stereotypes. Many of these perceptions and stereotypes are unfair and unpopular. One cannot describe the entire population by only looking at the bottom of the barrel.

My books were written with the intention of examining, as critically as possible, only the sub-population of Mexican-Americans that are dropping out of high school in record numbers and plaguing our society with violent crimes. In the course of doing this difficult work, I undertook the unpleasant task of reviewing popular perceptions and prejudices to see if they had any validity or truth behind them. However, it was not my intention to mix or tangle my personal views with the views that other people have of this culture. I am very proud of my heritage and want to help Latin Americans in general, and Mexican-Americans in particular, in any way I can through my work. There will be times when my work will force me to confront the divergent attitudes in society with a critical eye and an even more critical mind. Even if I must stand alone, the importance of achieving my goals is worth the effort and the criticism I will receive.
Ernesto Caravantes, Author, Essayist.

Ernesto Caravantes Presentation at Cal State University - Long Beach Marked a SUCCESS!!!

2009-10-26T16:55:00.000-07:00

California State University - Long Beach invited best selling author and speaker, Ernesto Caravantes to speak to their Leadership Academy on October 06th, 2009. Caravantes spoke to the students and faculty about Cross Cultural Issues Facing Hispanic Students.

The eye opening, thought-provoking discussion was accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation. It comes on the heels on the a strong Federal initiatives to encourage Hispanic students to continue and achieve a higher education. "I was honored to be invited to speak at California State University-Long Beach," says Caravantes. "The audience was great and eager to hear beyond statistics and learn how they can be a part of the solution."

About the Leadership Academy:
he Leadership Academy is a series of workshops focused on cultivating leadership excellence by developing student leadership potential for practical and professional application.

The Leadership Academy is a three-part extracurricular, certificate-bearing program composed of workshops, community service and practical application. The total program time of the CSULB Leadership Academy is 25 hours. Each participant is given four years to complete the program. Many students have completed it in one semester. There are seven mandatory two-hour workshops and five one-hour elective workshops. There is no minimum GPA or previous leadership experience required to join the program.

The Leadership Academy is now using online tools to facilitate your user experience. Not only do you now have the ability to see the workshop calendar and descriptions, but you can also reserve and cancel seats in our workshops, request a list of the current reservations you have, and how many requirements you have to fulfill before meeting the graduation requirements. Use the link below, or the navigation links in the menu on the right-hand side, to use the online workshop features.

Gap Rap: Hispanics and Good Parenting

2009-10-26T16:49:00.000-07:00

Tod Robberson/Editorial Writer
Dallas News

There's been a Gap Rap lapse. Clearly, I need to bridge my Gap Rap gap. So let's get started. If you look at nationwide early-education trends, it appears that Hispanic children are not getting certain kinds of attention early in life that are crucial to their development and ability to excel in school. Results of one study could explain some of the factors (though certainly not all) behind the underperformance in several Hispanic-dominated southern Dallas schools.

The study, by researchers at University of California-Berkeley, tracked 8,114 infants born in 2001 to parents of varying racial groups. While all started out strongly in terms of nurturing and attention, Hispanic mothers tended to pay less attention than whites and blacks to certain sensory-development and language skills once children reached ages 2 and 3. The study didn't measure English-language skills, just any language skills. According to the study, low levels of maternal education, larger family size, and uneven learning practices in the home help explain the lag. According to UC-Berkeley statistics, just one-fifth of Mexican American and one-third of all Latina mothers had completed any college courses, compared with almost two-thirds of white mothers.

Almost three-fifths of Mexican American toddlers were growing up in families earning less than $25,000 per year, relative to just one-fifth of white families. "The great majority of young Latino children benefit from two warm and caring parents at home," Fuller said. "But the reading activities, educational games, and performing the ABCs for Grandma, so often witnessed in middle-class homes, are less consistently seen in poor Latino households."

The statistics closely follow what we're seeing particularly in West Dallas and Pleasant Grove, where DISD's three most troubled high schools are located. I write this not to point the finger at Hispanics but to re-emphasize points I've made earlier about the need to teach parents how to be parents -- especially in the case of teens who are becoming parents. We too often take parenting skills for granted, as if it innately comes with the job. It doesn't. That's why I made a point of listening to DISD school board candidates on their lists of priorities for improving schools in southern Dallas.

When you hear a school board candidate talk about getting more involved, attending PTA meetings and working within the community to teach parenting skills and motivate parents to do better, that's a candidate who deserves serious consideration for your vote. This isn't a problem that can be solved in the school board meeting room.

Ernesto to Speak at California State University - Long Beach this October

2009-09-29T11:35:00.000-07:00

Ernesto Caravantes is scheduled to speak at California State University - Long Beach, October 07, 2009. The best-selling author and public speaker will discuss, "Education and Cultural Codes: Overcoming Limiting Cultural Beliefs and Achieving Success in Education."

The one hour workshop will focus on un-spoken cultural codes that many Lations live by. The presentation will allow the audience to see how these implicit cultural codes of conduct can guide and shape human behavior, particulary in the area of education.

Ultimately, the audience will learn the statistics of the high drop out rates and how teachers, students and parents can form an effective coalition to help address and alleviate this academic phenomenon.

Ernesto to Speak at 15th Annual MEES Conference

2009-09-23T17:28:00.000-07:00

Ernesto Caravantes is scheduled to speak at this year's 15th Annual California MEES Conference in Sacramento, November 17-19, 2009.

"I am honored to speak at this conference and I am
looking forward to presenting information that will create an positive impact on our youth," says Caravantes.

The presentation will focus on the cross-cultural issues, which currently confront Latinos in the American educational system. By using past and current theories of culture by well-known educators, Ernesto will discuss the topics of assimilation, acculturation, parent-community partnerships, and what can be done to reverese the problem of underachievement amongst Hispanics. A period of question and answer will follow.

PCC the scene for White House education forum

2009-09-13T15:18:00.000-07:00

By Becky Pallack

Arizona Daily Star

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.10.2009

More than 200 people told the White House their opinions about improving Hispanic education during meetings at Pima Community College on Wednesday.

Juan Sepulveda, executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, hosted the meetings. It was a smart idea for the White House group to talk with the community, said PCC Chancellor Roy Flores.

"The realities are: In order to have a prosperous economy, you have to have an educated population," he said. And a growing part of the work force is minorities. Thus, "how well we're able to compete depends on how well we educate minorities."

Part of the administration's increased support for Hispanic education comes by way of increased funding to community colleges — $12 billion over 10 years, Sepulveda said.

More than half of the Latinos who pursue higher education start at a community college, he said.

At the meeting, six volunteers were given a couple of minutes to share their ideas about improving Hispanic education on stage.

Here are the opinions they shared:

"Curriculum needs to be culturally relevant, and teachers should encourage students to love their culture. Students shouldn't be expected to assimilate."

— Julio Cammarota, 47, an associate professor in the University of Arizona's Mexican American and Raza studies department

"The two things I've noticed as an instructor are that students are not well prepared in basic skills and we're spending an awful lot of money doing remedial education.

"Schools would better help students by offering competency-based progression with individual learning plans instead of grade-level advancement."

— Murray Leimsieder, 59, a sociology instructor at Pima Community College

"Teachers who are exposed to science, technology and math in real workplaces are better able to get kids excited about those fields."

— Ron Reid, 61, a manager at Raytheon Missile Systems

"Students need mentors and role models. Parent involvement at school also is key, but parents need to be educated about ways to get involved in their kids' education."

— Delfina Landeros, 69, a sociology instructor at Pima Community College

"Investing in early education pays high returns.

"It's key for parents to expect their kids to go to college and for kids to have great relationships with teachers."

— Lupita Cavazos-Garcia, 60, assistant superintendent in the Tucson Unified School District

"When teachers have to focus on standardized tests, it's hard for them to be creative and capture kids' potential."

— Yvonne Delgadillo, 29, executive director of Nogales Community Development

White House Initiative on Hispanic Education

2009-08-22T04:51:00.000-07:00

By Sara Sandrik

Merced, CA (KFSN) -- The leader of a White House initiative designed to help Hispanic students visited the Valley, to get input from local educators and parents.

The White House representative who came here is preparing to update an executive order that was created nearly 20 years ago to promote quality education for Hispanic Americans. But first, he's asking communities across the state for help.

Juan Sepulveda said, "What we're going to spend most of our time doing today is hearing from you directly ... "

The chance to have their voices heard brought dozens of parents and educators to this meeting with the executive director of the white house initiative on educational excellence for Hispanic Americans.

Rosemary Parga Duran said, "I've been in education 30 years and I've never had the White House ask me what I think about anything, so I'm very excited that they're willing to come out to California, the Central Valley, Merced and find out what we think."

Juan Sepulveda hosted a forum in Merced following a similar stop in Fresno Friday morning. Its part of a statewide listening tour designed to ask those on the front lines how Latino education can be improved and what the white house should be doing to spearhead those efforts.

"One interesting one we heard which was different is the issue of water and how water has to be dealt with in order for all of the other things that are connected to it for the kids to have the educational opportunities they need as being something that's unique to the Valley," said Sepulveda.

Participants at this meeting say other challenges include parents who don't understand the educational system ... as well as teachers who don't understand where the kids are coming from.

Barbara Hill said, "You have teachers who have never been in poverty trying to understand poverty trying to understand why children can't learn because their parents can't pay the rent."

Sepulveda says the Obama administration is taking several steps to break down those barriers, including increasing the value of Pell grants and simplifying the federal financial aid form. And he's hoping these forums will lead to more ideas to help close the achievement gap.

"If you could tell the president ... Mr. President I think these are the three most important things we should be doing, we want to get your advice as to what the agenda should be for us moving forward," said Sepulveda.

Sepulveda says there is more money available now to help with these efforts thanks to federal stimulus funding which included 100 billion dollars for education.

Task Force Forms to ‘rescue’ New Mexico’s Latino Dropouts

2009-08-16T06:48:00.000-07:00

New Mexico is the only Hispanic-majority state in the nation. Latinos make up nearly 57 percent of its students while whites make up 29 percent.

The state’s public schools are failing to educate more than half of those Latino children. Put another way, Latino dropouts number almost exactly the same as all white students in the state.

To confront this looming education tsunami threatening New Mexico’s social and economic future, a number of concerned leaders have formed “The Latino/Hispano Education Improvement Task Force.”

They cite that Latinos make up nearly 70 percent of all of the state’s elementary schools students, foreshadowing the state’s continuing population shift.

Because of this situation, task force members say they’re convinced that the Latino education crisis will grow unless there is intervention to “forge bold and provocative redirection.”

The issue surfaced when the South West Organizing Project (SWOP) pointed out that the recent state legislative session included a bill to create an independent police department within the Albuquerque public school system.

SWOP organizer Emma Sandoval reacted immediately. “We don’t need a police department to be taking money away from educating our kids.’’

With mobilization and organizing by community leaders, the bill was killed in both houses.

Too often the nation’s failure to educate Hispanic students is blamed on poverty and their limited English skills. However, Laredo’ Texas—at one time billed as the “Poorest City in the Nation”—has one school district with 96.4 percent Latino enrollment, 71 percent are poor and 48 percent have limited English skills. Yet 87.7 percent of Latinos there receive a high school diploma in four years. In Albuquerque public schools, comprising the largest district in the state, only 37 percent of Latinos graduated in four years.

The Task Force has forged partnerships with statewide grassroots groups, unions, legislators, unions and administrators to sign on to their mission. Recently the group approached Gov.

Bill Richardson asking for endorsement of six initiatives that included declaring a state of crisis, making changes in the Department of Education and funding this community-based task force to train parents and educators throughout the state to redirect schools priorities.

The governor approved all six initiatives, promising stimulus monies to fund the project. Richardson also pledged to make education reform his priority for the remaining 17 months of his tenure as governor.

But, given that New Mexico has risen only from 50th to 48th position among U.S. states in its dropouts rate, there’s still a long ways to go. Task Force member Adrian Pedroza says he hopes that before Richardson’s eight-year term ends, change might finally get started. Hispanic Link.

White House leader on Hispanic education coming to Santa Ana

2009-08-13T19:48:00.000-07:00

The director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans will lead a town-hall meeting next week at Santa Ana College.

The "Community Conversation" with Juan Sepúlveda is open to the public, but reservations are required and can only be made through today and Thursday. Call 714-480-7450 or go to www.sac.edu/activities/public_affairs/whitehouseinitiative.htm to make a reservation before 5 p.m. Thursday.

Sepúlveda is visiting Hispanic communities for input as he prepares top update the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. His meeting at Santa Ana College on Monday will be a conversation on the state of Hispanic education.

The meeting is divided into two sessions, the first beginning at 9:30 a.m., the second beginning at 12:45 p.m. It will be in the college's Johnson Center, 1530 W. 17th St.

Richardson: NM dropout rate 'unacceptable'

2009-08-07T06:16:00.000-07:00

New Mexico Business Weekly

Saying that New Mexico’s 46 percent high school dropout rate is unacceptable, Gov. Bill Richardson today announced a plan to get 10,000 state high school dropouts
back in school by the 2010/11 school year.

The “Graduate New Mexico! It’s Everybody’s Business” effort will work with a wide range of community, faith-based, educational and business groups to find those dropouts and encourage them to get back in school, Richardson said during a news conference at Albuquerque’s Rio Grande High School.

“To sustain New Mexico’s growing economy and work force, all New Mexicans must, at the very least, graduate from high school,” Richardson said. “We must accept that in the 21st century, to secure a job that will support a family and provide a decent quality of life, a high school diploma is a must.”

The $8.9 million effort will use federal stimulus money to make online courses available to dropouts.

Other parts of the plan include the formation of a task force to examine schools that have consistently failed to improve over the past five years, the establishment of the Office of Hispanic Education at the state’s Public Education Department, three statewide summits to address student achievement gaps, online cultural competency training for teachers and the creation of an annual report card for achievement, dropout and graduation rates.

Education Department Secretary Veronica Garcia said that 40,000 New Mexico students have dropped out of high school in the past four years.

Report: Texas still lags in Hispanics in higher ed

2009-08-01T03:04:00.000-07:00

Hispanic enrollment in Texas colleges and universities
would need to almost double in the next six years
to meet the state's goals by 2015,
according to a new state report.

The staff report approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board on Thursday looked a progress toward goals adopted by the state in 2000. The board has long considered lagging Hispanic enrollment and graduation rates a major problem.

"Texas is not one of the highest-achieving states in terms of overall education attainment," Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes said. "And Hispanics are the lowest-achieving of the three major ethnic groups in Texas."

The Austin American-Statesman reported Friday that the review found Hispanic enrollment had grown faster than that of blacks or whites but not fast enough to meet the state's goals. Nearly 129,500 more Hispanic students have enrolled in higher education since 2000, but another 309,000 would need to do so by 2015 to meet the state's goal of 5.7 percent of Hispanics enrolled.

Texas had about 367,000 Latino college students last year.

One problem is that too few Hispanic students graduate from high school, the report said. Only 54.2 percent of Hispanic seventh-graders in 1995 graduated from a Texas public high school, compared with 61.3 percent of all students, it said.

"Latino youth begin kindergarten far behind their peers," said Patricia Gandara, a UCLA professor of education. "Latino students require more investment by the state."

Officials pledged to address Hispanic achievement, as well as shortfalls in technology-related degrees, research funding and other benchmarks.

Texas has a goal of having 5.7 percent of each major ethnic and racial group in the state enroll in college by 2015. Last year, 5.4 percent of Texans were enrolled in public and private colleges and universities, up from 5 percent in 2000.

The proportion of blacks was the highest, at 5.6 percent, the report said.

___

Information from: Austin American-Statesman, http://www.statesman.com

Experts: Latino students can feel less than valued

2009-07-24T07:55:00.000-07:00

By Lisa Schencker,

The Salt Lake Tribune

When Richard Gomez was young, his father discouraged him from going to college.

"My dad was saying, 'No, you're the oldest of eight. You need to graduate and go to work,'" Gomez said. It's the type of encouragement Gomez said is essential to keeping Latino students -- who might not otherwise envision the same futures as their white peers -- in school. Experts say a number of systemic and personal challenges keep many Latino students from graduating.

But Gomez, now coordinator for educational equity at the State Office of Education, went to college anyway after a counselor told him he was "college material."

(click chart to enlarge)

Some face economic pressures such as having to work -- or wanting to drop out of school -- to help support their families. Others struggle to fulfill high school requirements in a language they're still learning. Some students who are in the U.S. illegally --- about 7 percent of Latinos younger than 18 -- see no point in finishing school, knowing it will be difficult to secure scholarships and professional jobs, experts say. Others have parents who didn't graduate and can't prepare them for college the same way other parents might, said Patricia Dark of the Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Still, Latino students as a group are diverse, yet they sometimes are tracked into lower-level classes based on the assumption they all struggle academically, Gomez said.

"A lot of policies, practices and structures in place, some written and some not, have the overall effect of sending a clear message to kids of color that they're really not valued in our high schools," said Michael Wotorson of the Campaign for High School Equity, a Washington, D.C.-based coalition.

For example, Latino students comprised about 8 percent of Utah's Class of 2008, but made up only 5 percent of those who took Advanced Placement exams. East High junior Margarita Rodriguez said she was the only person of color in one of her honors classes.

"You felt uncomfortable like you didn't belong," she said. "People just don't think you can do as much."

Gomez said placing Latino students into lower-level classes is the type of inadvertent practice that makes some feel schools don't value them. Students who don't feel valued are more likely to drop out, said Theresa Martinez, assistant vice president for academic outreach at the University of Utah. "If they knew that ahead of them was a six-figure salary and they would be treated fairly, they would keep going to school," Martinez said. "But they don't see that."

Unraveling how children become bilingual so easily

2009-07-21T09:10:00.000-07:00

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard, Ap Medical Writer

The best time to learn a foreign language: Between birth and age 7. Missed that window?

New research is showing just how children's brains can become bilingual so easily, findings that scientists hope eventually could help the rest of us learn a new language a bit easier.

"We think the magic that kids apply to this learning situation, some of the principles, can be imported into learning programs for adults," says Dr. Patricia Kuhl of the University of Washington, who is part of an international team now trying to turn those lessons into more teachable technology.

Each language uses a unique set of sounds. Scientists now know babies are born with the ability to distinguish all of them, but that ability starts weakening even before they start talking, by the first birthday.

Kuhl offers an example: Japanese doesn't distinguish between the "L" and "R" sounds of English — "rake" and "lake" would sound the same. Her team proved that a 7-month-old in Tokyo and a 7-month-old in Seattle respond equally well to those different sounds. But by 11 months, the Japanese infant had lost a lot of that ability.

Time out — how do you test a baby? By tracking eye gaze. Make a fun toy appear on one side or the other whenever there's a particular sound. The baby quickly learns to look on that side whenever he or she hears a brand-new but similar sound. Noninvasive brain scans document how the brain is processing and imprinting language.

Mastering your dominant language gets in the way of learning a second, less familiar one, Kuhl's research suggests. The brain tunes out sounds that don't fit.

"You're building a brain architecture that's a perfect fit for Japanese or English or French," whatever is native, Kuhl explains — or, if you're a lucky baby, a brain with two sets of neural circuits dedicated to two languages.

It's remarkable that babies being raised bilingual — by simply speaking to them in two languages — can learn both in the time it takes most babies to learn one. On average, monolingual and bilingual babies start talking around age 1 and can say about 50 words by 18 months.

Italian researchers wondered why there wasn't a delay, and reported this month in the journal Science that being bilingual seems to make the brain more flexible.

The researchers tested 44 12-month-olds to see how they recognized three-syllable patterns — nonsense words, just to test sound learning. Sure enough, gaze-tracking showed the bilingual babies learned two kinds of patterns at the same time — like lo-ba-lo or lo-lo-ba — while the one-language babies learned only one, concluded Agnes Melinda Kovacs of Italy's International School for Advanced Studies.

While new language learning is easiest by age 7, the ability markedly declines after puberty.

"We're seeing the brain as more plastic and ready to create new circuits before than after puberty," Kuhl says. As an adult, "it's a totally different process. You won't learn it in the same way. You won't become (as good as) a native speaker."

Yet a soon-to-be-released survey from the Center for Applied Linguistics, a nonprofit organization that researches language issues, shows U.S. elementary schools cut back on foreign language instruction over the last decade. About a quarter of public elementary schools were teaching foreign languages in 1997, but just 15 percent last year, say preliminary results posted on the center's Web site.

What might help people who missed their childhood window? Baby brains need personal interaction to soak in a new language — TV or CDs alone don't work. So researchers are improving the technology that adults tend to use for language learning, to make it more social and possibly tap brain circuitry that tots would use.

Recall that Japanese "L" and "R" difficulty? Kuhl and scientists at Tokyo Denki University and the University of Minnesota helped develop a computer language program that pictures people speaking in "motherese," the slow exaggeration of sounds that parents use with babies.

Japanese college students who'd had little exposure to spoken English underwent 12 sessions listening to exaggerated "Ls" and "Rs" while watching the computerized instructor's face pronounce English words. Brain scans — a hair dryer-looking device called MEG, for magnetoencephalography — that measure millisecond-by-millisecond activity showed the students could better distinguish between those alien English sounds. And they pronounced them better, too, the team reported in the journal NeuroImage.

"It's our very first, preliminary crude attempt but the gains were phenomenal," says Kuhl.

But she'd rather see parents follow biology and expose youngsters early. If you speak a second language, speak it at home. Or find a play group or caregiver where your child can hear another language regularly.

"You'll be surprised," Kuhl says. "They do seem to pick it up like sponges."

Baptists launch plan for Hispanic education

2009-07-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

By SAM HODGES

Texas Baptists say they want to do more than just pray about the problem of Hispanic youth dropping out of high school.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas plans to make its 1,100 Hispanic churches a place to go for help in getting a GED. A companion strategy is to have a volunteer education coordinator in each of those churches, charged with helping keep kids from leaving high school early. The volunteers also will advise Hispanic youth and adults about college admission and financial aid.

"This is not unusual for us," said Randel Everett, executive director of the BGCT. Everett noted that Texas Baptists have been active in education since creating Baylor University in 1845.

But others say a focus on Hispanic education represents something novel for a large U.S. Protestant group, and that creative outreach makes sense in a state with a fast-growing Hispanic population.

"Let's face it, Texas will one day soon be a majority minority state if present trends continue," said Dave Travis, managing director of Leadership Network, a Dallas-based organization dedicated to church growth and innovation. "Baptists are just trying to get ahead of that curve."

Making inroads

While Catholicism remains the dominant faith among Hispanics, Protestant groups – especially Baptists and Assemblies of God – have made inroads. The BGCT estimates its Hispanic contingent at 125,000, most in small, predominantly Hispanic congregations.

Texas Baptists have been active in Hispanic education since at least the late 1940s, with the creation in San Antonio of the Mexican Baptist Training School, now the Baptist University of the Americas.

But a real targeting of Hispanic education issues began in 2005, when the BGCT had its first Hispanic president – Albert Reyes. He led the convention to establish a task force on Hispanic education.

That 24-member group eventually produced a report called "Abriendo Puertas: Opening Doors for Hispanic Youth." It quotes 2000 U.S. census data showing that nearly a third of Texas' Hispanic adults age 25 and older have less than a ninth-grade education.

Earlier this year, the BGCT followed up by assigning a high-ranking staffer – Gus Reyes, Albert Reyes' brother – to spend half his work time on Hispanic education issues.

At a Dallas gathering of Hispanic Baptists on Sunday, Gus Reyes, Everett and other officials announced the plan to have a volunteer education coordinator and GED prep program at each of the 1,100 Hispanic congregations.

For the prep program, a church must have at least one computer with Internet access. The BGCT will provide a code for access to the Web site tutorials of GEDon line.org, a private company based in Wisconsin.

Reyes said the BGCT arranged with the firm to pay a single $650 "site licensing" fee for a year's access at all 1,100 Hispanic churches, as opposed to paying that fee for each church. Online practice tests will cost $13.50 each, and the BGCT will try to help churches that can't afford them.

'Absolutely needed'

Among the churches eager to have GED training is Primera Iglesia Bautista Mexicana, in Dallas. The 190-member church near Walnut Hill and Marsh lanes already has a reading program for children, and another program aimed at teaching girls life skills and encouraging them to stick with school.

Donors have created a computer lab at the church, and Internet access should be up soon, preparing the way for the GED effort.

"It's absolutely needed," said deacon Danny Cancino, who added that many Hispanics feel more comfortable going to a church for help than to a government agency.

The BGCT has taken other steps, including lobbying the Texas Legislature successfully for a boost in adult education spending. And the BGCT isn't alone among Texas Baptist institutions in targeting Hispanic education.

For example, Buckner International – the Dallas-based charity formerly known as Buckner Baptist Benevolences – placed staff member Sandra Martinez at Primera Iglesia Bautista Mexicana to help respond to community needs, including education.

Dallas Baptist University has nearly doubled its number of Hispanic students in recent years. Baylor's student population is about 10 percent Hispanic, up from 7.6 percent in 2002.

Reyes emphasized that the main mission of Texas Baptists remains evangelism.

"But if you put a Bible in their hand, and they can't read it, that doesn't help anybody," he said.

College & University and Conference Speaker

2009-07-10T05:30:00.001-07:00

Ernesto Caravantes

As a thought leader of his generation, Ernesto opens the eyes and the minds of young people. He encourages young people to stay in school, stay off / get off drugs, paint the future they want, and set forth to obtaining it. Ernesto motivates, inspires, teaches, counsels...and elevates.

"Ernesto changed my life in literally an hour.
No one ever told me that I could do it; he did.
I start college in the fall."
~ Tracey Gonzalez, Class of 2008

This best-selling Author of "Clipping Their Own Wings" and Social Critic is eager to speak at your college & university, conference, and/or Youth Summit.

Schedule Ernesto to speak at your event today!

High School Topics

The A-G requirements to get into a university
The importance of having a well-rounded high school education (grades are not the only things that matter)

College/University Topics

The anachronistic and narrow view of Chicano Studies Departments
The politicization of the Chicano Student organizations and their move away from truly academic principles
The importance of preparing Hispanic students for their college/university education

Conference Topics

The Hispanic culture's undervaluing of education
The need to put and place culture in its proper perspective

Why Latinos are dropping out of high school in such high numbers....?

2009-06-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

The Hispanic drop out rate from high school is the highest among ANY ethnic group in the United States. With the Latino population now being the largest ethnic group in the country, we are truly facing a crisis in education.

I am the author of a controversial book which finally explains why Latinos are dropping out of high school in such high numbers. The title of my new book is: “Clipping Their Own Wings.”

The book dares to say what no one else has dared to say about the Latino culture: Hispanics are lagging behind as a result of ignorantly and stubbornly adhering to a culture that does not promote education. Latinos, who by now are the largest ethnic population in America, are never going to catch up if they don't shape up with regard to education. Hispanics are clipping their own wings by refusing to assimilate into the American educational system.

The lazy and backward Hispanic culture’s lack of encouragement for education in its students is the heart of the matter. This book is putting the blame squarely on a culture that has not placed education at the top of its values hierarchy. Clearly, the Latino culture has been placing other matters ahead of education. This is why unless the culture itself changes, nothing will really make a dent in the problem.

Every taxpaying citizen should read my book. The problem extends to every taxpaying citizen. If these Latino dropouts never return to school, or if the girls end up pregnant and the boys become truants, then all of society suffers. They end up dependent on welfare and others forms of public assistance. You and I as taxpayers are ultimately supporting these lazy and ignorant washouts. Do you really want this continue? Trust me, if the message in my book is not disseminated far and wide, it will.

I urge you to consider the subject matter in my book. This book, in the hands of the right people in both educational and legislative circles, can make a major contribution to calling attention to the real and ignored problem of educational complacency and apathy in a culture which clearly doesn’t understand that education is the key to a brighter future.

Latino immigrants need to assimilate

2009-06-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

Too many immigrants Latinos who fail to assimilate are undermining American values
By Lawrence Harrison, Baltimore Sun, June 1, 2009

President Barack Obama has encouraged Americans to start laying a new foundation for the country - on a number of fronts. He has stressed that we'll need to have the courage to make some hard choices. One of those hard choices is how to handle immigration. The U.S. must get serious about the tide of legal and illegal immigrants, above all from Latin America. It's not just a short-run issue of immigrants competing with citizens for jobs as unemployment approaches 10 percent, or the number of uninsured straining the quality of healthcare.

Heavy immigration from Latin America threatens our cohesiveness as a nation. Do I sound like a right-wing "nativist"? I'm not. I'm a lifelong Democrat, an early and avid supporter of Mr. Obama. I'm gratified by his nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. I'm also the grandson of Eastern European Jewish immigrants and a member, along with several other Democrats, of the advisory boards of the Federation for American Immigration Reform and Pro English.

The principal beneficiaries of our current immigration policy are affluent Americans who hire immigrants at substandard wages for low-end work. Harvard economist George Borjas estimates that American workers lose $190 billion annually in depressed wages caused by the constant flooding of the labor market at the low-wage end. The health-care cost of the illegal work force is especially burdensome and is subsidized by taxpayers. To claim Medicaid, you must be legal, but as the Health and Human Services inspector general found, 47 states allow self-declaration of status for Medicaid. Many hospitals and clinics are going broke because of the constant stream of uninsured, many of whom are among the estimated 12 million to 15 million illegal immigrants. This translates into reduced services, particularly for lower-income citizens. The U.S. population totaled 281 million in 2000. About 35 million, or 12.5 percent, were Latino. The Census Bureau projects that our population will reach 439 million in 2050.

The Hispanic population in 2050 is projected at 133 million - 30 percent of the total and almost quadruple the 2000 level. Latinos have contributed some positive cultural attributes to U.S. society, such as multigenerational family bonds. But the same traditional values that lie behind Latin America's difficulties in achieving democratic stability, social justice and prosperity are being substantially perpetuated among Hispanic-Americans.

Prominent Latin Americans have concluded that traditional values are at the root of the region's development problems. Among those expressing that opinion: Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa; Nobelist author Octavio Paz, a Mexican; Teodoro Moscoso, a Puerto Rican politician and U.S. ambassador to Venezuela; and Ecuador's former president, Osvaldo Hurtado. Latin America's cultural problem is apparent in the persistent Latino high school dropout rate - 40 percent in California, according to a recent study - and the high incidence of teenage pregnancy, single mothers and crime.

The perpetuation of Latino culture is facilitated by the Spanish language's growing challenge to English as our national language. It makes it easier for Latinos to avoid the melting pot and for education to remain a low priority, as it is in Latin America - a problem highlighted in recent books by former New York City deputy mayor Herman Badillo, a Puerto Rican, and Mexican-Americans Lionel Sosa and Ernesto Caravantes.

Mr. Obama should confront the challenges by enforcing immigration laws on employment to help end illegal immigration. We should calibrate legal immigration annually to (1) the needs of the economy, and (2) past performance of immigrant groups with respect to acculturation. We must declare our national language to be English and discourage the proliferation of Spanish-language media. We should limit citizenship by birth to the offspring of citizens.

And we should provide immigrants with easy-to-access educational services that facilitate acculturation, including English language, citizenship and American values. Lawrence Harrison directs the Cultural Change Institute at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. He is the author of "The Central Liberal Truth: How Politics Can Change A Culture And Save It From Itself." This article originally appeared in The Christian Science Monitor.

'Power is in us,' labor leader says in Oxnard College talk

2009-06-15T10:02:00.000-07:00

By Jean Cowden Moore

Thursday, November 29, 2007

If people want social justice, they must organize and fight for it — speak up, march and vote, labor leader Dolores Huerta told a crowd of students Wednesday at Oxnard College.

"Nothing is going to change unless we do it," said Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union with César Chávez in 1962. "The power is in us."

Huerta, 77, spoke as part of the college's speakers series, which is held on campus every Wednesday. Other speakers have included poet Maria Meléndez and author Ernesto Caravantes.

About 800 people attended Huerta's talk, 550 of them from local high schools, said Shelley Savren, an English professor who is organizing the series.

Judith Galvan, 16, a student at Channel Islands High School in Oxnard, was there because she wanted to hear history from someone who made it.

"I wanted to show that I cared what she did," Galvan said. "We're learning about this in the classroom, and this puts a face to what we're learning."

Other high schools sending students were Camarillo, Hueneme, Oxnard, Pacifica and Rio Mesa.

David Gallegos, dean of students at Hueneme, brought about 55 teens to the talk so they could understand the sacrifices their parents and grandparents made fighting for the rights they now have. Before the talk, Gallegos reminisced about attending rallies with his dad, who was a farmworker. As he reminisced, he recalled an old chant from those rallies: "Chávez, sí; Teamsters, no."

"We're trying to promote higher education, to have them learn beyond the classroom," Gallegos said. "If they understand the struggles of the past, they might take advantage of the opportunities available to them in the present."

After co-founding the United Farm Workers, Huerta helped organize grape boycotts in the late 1960s. She also lobbied for employment and health rights for farmworkers. Later, she founded the Dolores Huerta Foundation, aimed at encouraging grass-roots communities to organize.

"We're trying to preserve and teach the organizing methods César Chávez and I used when we organized the farmworkers years ago," Huerta said in an interview after her talk Wednesday. "We hire and train organizers so they can go into the communities, so the communities can fight their own battles."

In her talk, Huerta urged students to get an education if they want to be part of the fight for social justice.

"The best way to fight back is to stay in school," she said.

Then she addressed the young women in the audience directly, warning them that they should not rely on someone else to provide for and protect them. That's their job, she said, and they'll need an education and career to do it.

And the young men? They need to learn to cook and do laundry, along with getting an education, she said.

"Women need to be strong, men need to be strong — because we have a lot of things we need to fix," she said.

Parents also can educate their children by taking them along on marches, Huerta said. That's how she managed to be an activist and bring up 11 children, she said in the interview.

"My children came along with me," she said. "If children come to marches, they understand what social justice is all about. It's a good teaching experience."