-=> Quoting Jim Casto to Robin Arnhold <=-
Hi, Jim,
 
 RA> I frankly don't know enough about many of these issues to discuss
 RA> them.
 JC> 
 JC> Uh, well, that was kinda my point. I don't (or wouldn't) know about
 JC> these issues unless I went out of my way and researched them. And that
 JC> takes time.
And energy.  I don't happen to have much of either at this point in my
life.  Reading the newsgroups is actually more in the way of recreation
for me.  If it seemed too much like 'work', I'd probably move on to
something that provided more relaxation.
 
 JC> But the other side of the coin is... Why bother posting about some
 JC> subject if everyone already knows about it? For example: I don't
 JC> remember _anyone_ even _asking_ what ICWA meant. Therefore, everyone
 JC> must already know. Does it matter to anyone that the GOP "sweetheart"
 JC> that is bailing out on the people who elected her to become a TV
 JC> newscaster/anchor person is the same GOP Congresscritter that is
 JC> responsible for a lot of the modifications to the ICWA?
I hadn't heard that.  Thanks for mentioning it.  I understand Congress is
starting to debate the various changes to ICWA that have been proposed.
I wonder how the departure of this particular Congresscritter will affect
the outcome of the proposed changes, if it all.  
 
 RA> I will toss out something I heard
 RA> from one of my coworkers yesterday:  one of her daughters is a special
 RA> ed. teacher.  She has a lot of Spanish-speaking kids in the class, kids
 RA> who don't speak English.  I would suspect that most of them are also
 RA> Indians (many people don't seem to realize that there are Indians
 RA> south of the border).
 JC> 
 JC> 1. I don't know exactly how the "testers" are using the word
 JC> "retarded". Some people tend to use the word "loosely". My
 JC> dictionary says:  "Abnormally slow in mental development" without
 JC> any implication of _why_ the individual is "slow". Because they
 JC> weren't taught? Because they didn't put forth any effort to learn?
 JC> Who knows? 
I think the implication is that these particular children were judged as
lacking in the ability to learn.  Certainly they were placed in a special
education class and not in a class to teach them English as a second
language.
 JC> If I packed up and moved to France, whose responsibility
 JC> is it to teach _me_ French? How about my children?
A teacher of French, since one cannot learn a language without somebody
to learn it from.  I guess that's a bit of a smartalecky answer and I
apologize for the smartalecky part.  
 
 JC> 2. The testers are "retarded" in the fact that they can't recognize
 JC> _why_ a person might not do well on a test.
Agreed.
 
 RA> I am definitely not
 RA> amused by this, especially when one considers the push in various
 RA> quarters for English as the official language.
 JC> 
 JC> Virtually every culture/country in the world has an "official"
 JC> language. 
And some like Switzerland have as many as four.  However, just because
other countries have official languages doesn't necessarily mean that the
US should have one.
 JC> Unless you are fluent in Spanish, I suspect that you would
 JC> have difficulty dealing with the people of Mexico unless they spoke
 JC> English. 
Heck, I have trouble at work understanding our Spanish-speaking
customers.  However, that's another can of worms, especially since I've
been advocating for some time things such as having our publications in
Spanish.
 JC> If you took a test written in Spanish, would you feel/be
 JC> judged "retarded"? 
Depends on what kind of test it is.  My two years of high school Spanish
35 years ago is very rusty, but I can more or less muddle through
nonspecialized Spanish.
 JC> The French are _very_ good at stressing their
 JC> "official" language even in Quebec. 
Ah, but in France they love it if one makes an effort to speak French and
will go out of their way to be helpful if one does make that effort.
 JC> In a few years many of the highway
 JC> signs in Quebec will be only in French. Is it their responsibility to
 JC> put them in English, too, or is it my responsiblity to learn what they
 JC> mean? 
 
Well, since Quebec is still a part of Canada and Canada is officially a
bilingual country, yes, they are obligated to have their highway signs in
both French and English.  However, since Quebec thumbs its nose at the
rest of Canada and likely wouldn't use the pictoral signs used in Europe,
it would be a real good idea to understand things such as 'lente' and
'arret' before driving there.
 
 JC> So tell me... Do _you_ think John Smith did it?  (BTW, someone on
 JC> another service has _just_ heard about this "new" book but hasn't even
 JC> got her hands on a copy yet. )
 
No, I don't think he did.  He was basically a character in search of an
identity and died because he couldn't find one.  The killer was acting
out of an identity.
 
 JC> The book I am _now_ reading just mentioned fiddleheads in the story.
 JC> I was pleased that I din't hafta run and look it up. 
A friend of mine who designs and makes clothing was telling me not too
long ago about a piece of silk she got in Toronto that would look great
with fiddleheads painted on it.  Small world...
Take care,
Robin
--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.20
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