Found in Translation

Abstract

Does your child speak another language at home? To begin my daughter’s education in a New York City public school kindergarten I had to answer this question, which really inquired if her parents spoke another language at home and also asked if those parents were of the kind who obstructed their child’s capacity to learn in an English-speaking classroom. Of course, even though at home my daughter did speak Spanish—because it was her Ecuadorean mother’s first language; because Spanish was another intellectual enrichment to impart and as a household rule my wife and I didn’t celebrate ignorance, not even ignorance that passed for superiority—I answered “No.”