Sunday night KOLR 10 News gave us a nice human interest piece on English-as-a-second-language report. The focus was fixed on 'international students' and the ad naseum use of the phrase.
The piece instructed the viewer about the continuing struggles of attending school in the Ozarks, where English is not the student's primary language. Mix in Ozarkian command of the English language and that doubles the task at hand. The presentation was fine but lacked a certain something. Namely, the representation of any student from anywhere but Latin America. There were no Germans, Spaniards, members of the Basque region, Indian, Pakistani, Iraqi, French Canadian, Korean, Sri Lanka, ....you get the idea. The presupposition stands tall. All of our 'international' emigres are hard working citizens, hard studying students from Latin America (won't you have a heart?).
wink, wink, nudge ALERT! ...by international students, KOLR means 'illegal immigrants'
Our anchor for the evening gave some very positive news (try not to be overwhelmed by the exacting nature of the numbers). We were told, out of many international students in the school system, "most graduate". WOW!!!! most! really??!!?? Oh, joyous occasion! most! How heartening!
There's no report on how much is spent by the Springfield Public School system on educating the international students. Nor how many the number 'most' represents and at what rate the international students move through our local school system or their drop out rates after receiving 'English-as-a-second-language" education.
This puff piece exemplifies the local media's soft pedal techniques used to turn public opinion. Pay attention to KOLR 10 on Sunday nights and see for yourself. If I am not mistaken, they use the Sunday night format for this purpose.
As the Springfield Mis-Leader proclaimed, "'Tis a privilege to live in the Ozarks". Well, let's act like it and protect it!!!
We might be more vigilant of our potential for taxation costs (re: class sizes) as more illegal immigrants hasten eastward from efforts put forth in the western US states: http://michellemalkin.com/2008/04/05/la-times-explains-how-well-illegal-immigration-enforcement-worked-in-arizona-and-how-awful-that-is-for-america/
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