Summary Of Bilingual Education By Richard Rodriguez

Richard Rodriguez, the author of Aria, develops a personal intake and personal experience on the topic of bilingual education. He uses different rhetorical devices throughout his essay, which include juxtapositions and antithesis. In paragraph 5 of the essay, Rodriguez states that “…it is not possible for a child—any child—ever to use his family’s language in school. Not to understand this is to misunderstand the public uses of schooling and to trivialize the nature of intimate life – a family’s ‘language,”( Rodriguez, Paragraph 5). Rodriguez cultivates this claim by explaining the purpose or the definition of bilingual education and what this education is meant to accomplish. The definition of bilingual education is,”…a program that seeks to permit non- English speaking children…to use their family language as the language of school,” (Rodriguez, Paragraph 5).

Therefore, the author contrasts his claim, that children are not allowed to speak their language at school, with the definition of bilingual education, which argues otherwise. He does not believe in the fact that bilingual education is meant to help others by permitting children to use their family language at school because he believes that “intimate life” is “a family’s language”, therefore the language expressed at home is sacred and he believes that it should not be shared at school. Rodriguez develops his claim using rhetorical devices, which include antithesis and juxtaposition. He uses antithesis by connecting the intimacy of family language and school/the public together. The purpose of the antithesis used in this passage is to contrast the two ideas of family language, and its intimacy, with bilingual education and the purpose it