Education Today

Exactly what is this supposed to teach students?

The students had a role-play project: assume a Latino identity, build an imaginary life in your home country and develop a workable plan to immigrate to the United States.

Try it legally, Erica Vieyra told her 40 senior Spanish students at Olentangy Liberty High School. Fill out the correct documents, follow the proper steps. And then, after they spent days completing the actual paperwork from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, she took out her red ink pad and stamped a big, fat DENIED across every request.

Happens all the time. This should teach them to feel luck they were born in the US and never forget that advantage.

Now, let's teach the children how to break the law:

Now, she told the students, come illegally. Forge your documents, find a way across the border. Then, research real ads and find a place to live in Columbus. Figure out what it would cost, how to get food. Plan how to survive.

The students had to go to real businesses and ask for Spanish-language job applications. They had to visit a bank and ask for new-account documents written in Spanish.

Vieyra promised them that the process -- even in make-believe -- would frustrate them. But they would gain, she hoped, an understanding of what is one of the most important political and humanitarian issues facing the U.S. government today.

After three weeks of work, the students presented their projects yesterday and discussed their conclusions. Most said it was a grueling experience to even pretend to walk in an immigrant's shoes.

I think we should try another experiment. Little Suzy graduates from college and decides that America is too oppressive for her and she's having trouble finding a job. She applies to immigrate into Saudi Arabia because she thinks she can made a better life for herself there and meet some interesting people.

She fills out all the paperwork and is rejected. Not easily deterred, she manages to get into the country anyway. She doesn't speak the language and has a difficult time trying to find a place to live and a job to support herself. Then one day one her male neighbors reports her for not wearing hijab and it is determined that she is an abomination to Allah and must receive 200 lashes.

The point of this story is not that Saudi Arabia is a horrible place, but that when a country refuses to grant you a visa, you have absolutely no right to go there. Period. If you do, your risk mistreatment or as in the case of the States a difficult time finding shelter and a job. You have no right to complain about your situation. To teach children otherwise is a disservice.

She should stick to math and literature.