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Editor, Index-Tribune: The recent anti-dual immersion letters trouble me deeply. How can anyone believe that it is a "disservice to children" to teach them two languages in today's global society? Flowery's immersion program has served my children well and I have no doubt that they will reap the benefits of being biliterate for the rest of their lives.

The abysmal statistics for the failure rate of native Spanish speakers in the local high school clearly indicate that English-only or segregated bilingual instruction have failed far too many of Sonoma's youth, many of whom were born in the United States. The immersion program provides literacy in two languages to both native English- and native-Spanish speaking children. Years of immersion and brain research shows that biliterate children routinely outperform their monoliterate peers in standardized tests by the time they are in high school, and that immersion is the best way of acquiring a second language.

The "big division of our Sonoma community which consists of 'us' and 'the Hispanics'" that was mentioned in a letter is non-existent among those in Flowery's immersion program. As students learn not only from their teachers but also from each other, cultural groups understand and therefore comfortably interact with each other, and bridges are being built, not barriers. I am thrilled that I was given the choice of having my children either go to an English-only program or become biliterate while being taught the same curriculum as every other child in the public school system.

Heather Lim

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