Teacher Who Can’t Speak Spanish Sues Employer For Not Giving Her Job

LOL


https://uk.news.yahoo.com/teacher-t-speak-spanish-sues-080459709.html

Teacher Who Can’t Speak Spanish Sues Employer For Not Giving Her Job Teaching Spanish
Yahoo News 26 July 2016

A teacher who doesn’t speak a word of Spanish is suing her employers after they rejected her from a job - that teaches Spanish.

Tracy Rosner, who works at the Coral Reef Elementary school in Palmetto Bay, Florida, had applied for a position that included one hour of foreign language teaching a day.

The district rejected Rosner’s application on the grounds that she does not speak Spanish, kicking off a bizarre lawsuit.

Rosner claims she was being discriminated against because she couldn’t speak Spanish and insists that the one hour lesson could have been taught be someone else.

Her lawsuit insists she was “otherwise fully qualified” for the job and Rosner said that she was given extra teaching responsibilities as revenge for her application.

The lawsuit states: “As a direct and proximate result of the retaliation against Ms. Rosner, and the violation of her rights… Ms. Rosner was provided a less desirable position and has damages including emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, [and] loss of enjoyment of life.”

This teacher could just be a crackpot anyways, but elementary school Spanish should be able to be taught by anyone.  I don't see why fluency in Spanish would be a requirement. 

Although, this curriculum could be a cover-up for having students that don't speak English and the School District's way of mandating Spanish fluency teachers.

Considering some of the underhanded things my wife has seen different school districts try to do, it wouldn't surprise me if this district enacted new rules that are being used to try to force some of their more expensive qualified and experienced (and likely white, non-hispanic) teachers out of their jobs in order to hire cheaper and inexperienced teachers (that may be hispanic or non-white).

Meanwhile, the whole premise here touches on an even bigger issue.  Why should 1 hour of Spanish be forced to be taught?  English is effectively (if not officially) the main language in the U.S.  Elementary schools should not be forcing students to learn anything besides English, nor should their teachers be forced to teach anything besides English.

Interesting. So this is positively discrimination against non-Hispanics?

Interesting. So this is positively discrimination against non-Hispanics?

I don't think there is enough evidence here to positively determine anything about the situation.  Only enough evidence for speculation.

Meanwhile, the whole premise here touches on an even bigger issue.  Why should 1 hour of Spanish be forced to be taught?  English is effectively (if not officially) the main language in the U.S.  Elementary schools should not be forcing students to learn anything besides English, nor should their teachers be forced to teach anything besides English.

I can see why they do it, even if english is the main language in the US, Spanish is widely spoken. At a young age children learn languages much much faster and it's not a bad thing to lay a basis then. It'll be a lot easier to pick up spanish in highschool if they had some already at a younger age. In my country children are taught english as a second language from around age 10. Then from age 12 they're also taught German and French though they do get the option to drop one of those at a later point usually.

Though I never enjoyed learning languages I do feel it's an advantage to be able to speak more than one language especially when I go on holiday or have to help foreign customers. Though since I left highschool my French and German have been suffering somewhat and I would like to brush up on them.

Nobody learning Chinese?

Meanwhile, the whole premise here touches on an even bigger issue.  Why should 1 hour of Spanish be forced to be taught?  English is effectively (if not officially) the main language in the U.S.  Elementary schools should not be forcing students to learn anything besides English, nor should their teachers be forced to teach anything besides English.

I can see why they do it, even if english is the main language in the US, Spanish is widely spoken. At a young age children learn languages much much faster and it's not a bad thing to lay a basis then. It'll be a lot easier to pick up spanish in highschool if they had some already at a younger age. In my country children are taught english as a second language from around age 10. Then from age 12 they're also taught German and French though they do get the option to drop one of those at a later point usually.

Though I never enjoyed learning languages I do feel it's an advantage to be able to speak more than one language especially when I go on holiday or have to help foreign customers. Though since I left highschool my French and German have been suffering somewhat and I would like to brush up on them.

Even though the official language here is French, we learn English at school. I stsrted learning English in Grade 4, but now I think it is earlier than that.

Moku, for your French, I will be happy to help you. I think we can also bring in Mell for that.

Meanwhile, the whole premise here touches on an even bigger issue.  Why should 1 hour of Spanish be forced to be taught?  English is effectively (if not officially) the main language in the U.S.  Elementary schools should not be forcing students to learn anything besides English, nor should their teachers be forced to teach anything besides English.

I can see why they do it, even if english is the main language in the US, Spanish is widely spoken. At a young age children learn languages much much faster and it's not a bad thing to lay a basis then. It'll be a lot easier to pick up spanish in highschool if they had some already at a younger age. In my country children are taught english as a second language from around age 10. Then from age 12 they're also taught German and French though they do get the option to drop one of those at a later point usually.

I agree that learning another language can be useful.  However, I think it should be optional, especially the choice of which language to learn.  Due to where various immigrants settled and formed close-knit communities, there are regions in the US where you can find significant numbers of people that speak German, Czech, Polish, etc.   It's great they are able to preserve their heritage, of which language can be an integral piece.  As a result many youth growing up in those regions already learn 2 languages: English and one spoken at times by their family or community.  There have been rumblings about schools forcing everyone to learn Spanish as a 2nd language, but for people in these various areas it would essentially be a 3rd language, one which may be of very little use.  Consider the following map:

For the areas in blue, teaching Spanish probably may make sense.  But for the areas in orange or yellow, learning Spanish might not be as useful as learning some other language instead.

Now take a look at another map:

This picture is from an earlier census, but it shows the concentrations of German-speaking citizens which hasn't changed much over the past decade  I have relatives in Minnesota and North Dakota that are fluent in German and still speak it at times because there are enough people in their community that do.  I learned German in high school, but I knew a bit of it from my relatives before taking classes.  For the blue areas on these maps, it seems like they should consider teaching German as a 2nd language.  There would be similar maps for other languages spoken in the U.S.

Florida is blue. Hence Spanish is ok?