Custom «Official Language Movement» Essay Paper Sample

The official language movement usually refers to the political movement which is interested in making the English language the only official language in the United States. It should be the only language which should be taught to children in schools. All government operations must be done with the use of the official language, which is English only. The reasons for these are that America need to be united and the people behave as one nation, speaking the same language. However, there have been oppositions to these. Some people believe that the teaching of English alone will make the children of America lose their identity (David, 2009). Languages such as bilingualism are supposed to be taught to the American children since they reflect their culture. As a result, it will be possible for them to understand their background.

The failure to include bilingualism in the academic curriculum is a sign that America is a racist country. Teaching English alone in the schools indicate that the American education system does not value the other languages of the minority like the Hispanics (Jim, 2003). There is a belief that teaching children English alone makes them be more advantaged in terms of job opportunities. This is not true since the bilingualism language places a lot of expectations to students and thus makes them learn more than they would have learnt (Zelasko, 2010). This is a wrong perception which has been created by various political movements in the country and must be fought against to ensure the culture of American minorities is not eroded. America is the leading democracy in the world and it should give equal opportunities to all the people.

Putting it as Porter, (1998) did, No group of people should dominate the other and there should be no discrimination against some group of people depending on their culture or race. Therefore, no single language should be given priority over the other. This means that bilingualism should be taught in the same way English is taught in schools.