“Luckily, not everyone I encountered during my k-12 public school experience sought to silence and erase my culture. Not everyone demanded that I speak standard English. There were moments of relief.” (Prieto, 2005, p.4)

In The stings of social hierarchies Linda Prieto talks about her experience growing up Chicana and what her experience was in school. She talks about how many of her experiences in school in the US involved teachers telling her to only speak English and not speak Spanish and how her family, especially her mother, made sure that she didn’t loose her Mexican roots by speaking only Spanish in the house and keeping their traditions from Mexico strong. Because of her family, Prieto was able to become bilingual by keeping up with her Spanish in the home. However, unfortunately this is not always the case with first or second generation students or students who immigrate to the US at a young age.

The unfortunate truth is that many schools aim to teach students English by eliminating the student’s home language, either purposefully or unintentionally. Many language programs such as TESOL, ESL, ESOL, foreign language programs etc. are immersion programs which can be helpful for learning a language, but it can also be harmful if the student isn’t speaking or practicing their home language at home, in school etc. For example, if a student is told that they can only speak English and that they can’t use their home language at all and their parents are told to speak only English in the home and they’re only speaking English in school, this student will eventually loose their home language and become only an English speaker instead of becoming bilingual. Phasing out a student’s home language is harmful because then that student looses the benefits of being multilingual. It is very important as educators to be understanding of our students and their home experience, culture and language, such as the principal from Prieto’s experience. As educators we can try to incorporate our students’ experiences, languages and cultures into our lessons in order to help foster a multicultural/multilingual environment within our schools so as not to alienate minority students.