Service Learning "ESL Classroom"

I was getting into the hang of going into this classroom. I liked it because it was a routine and I knew exactly where I was going and what to do. The students always did something to shock me though. Today was very chaotic, due to the fact that most children had the flu and had runny noses. Today I spend most of my time sending kids to the nurse’s office and trying to make these Kindergarten children to blow their noses. It was not a nice sight but I am going to be doing this for the rest of my life. I did notice that I saw the first Caucasian girl today. I did not even notice that there was not one white person in the entire classroom. I figured it was an ESL classroom and most of the Caucasian students already knew English and did not need help in it.
The other question I had some student did not know any Spanish and some children barley knew English. It was a mixed bunch. This reminded me of the Article we read on Kozol. Many people say that we are equal now and there is no segregation but that is completely false. We have more racism today than during the civil right movement. This school is located on Candy Avenue; many children that live in this area are from middle class families. The area is surrounded with many nice houses and I know that the parents of these children send them to other school instead of letting their child go to a school this close to their house. Parents rather travel large distance while there is a school right near their home. I find this very disturbing and think that is not fair to the poverty level schools that don’t get a diverse enough classroom. A diverse classroom doesn’t mean a mix of Hispanic and blacks but a classroom mixed with all backgrounds.
After reading Teaching English Language Learners in my FNED 346 class I found out many things I did not know before writing this post. First of all I did not know that ESL meant English as a Second Language besides Spanish. I was brought up in a ESL classroom myself I experienced a classroom where all children were learning English but knew Spanish. As I look back after getting all of this knowledge I feel bad about myself because we never were looked as intelligent nobody wanted to be in an ESL classroom we all wanted to get out of there. After reading this article I don’t feel like that anymore. I feel proud because not many people know two languages, and even though my English is not perfect and I am still working on it my Spanish skills are still intact.
About 90 percent of the children in my classroom are Hispanic and 8 percent are African American only 1 girl is Caucasian. I think instead of putting those children to misery in a classroom where they don’t understand much, the 75 percent Hispanic children should finish learning in their Native Language. This was proven with information in the Article I talked about earlier. In this article it clearly states that teaching student to read in their first language will hive them a better change in learning English. It would be easier if teachers could be aware of what children know already in their primary language so then it can be applied to the new language being learned. Not only are these children in this classroom learning something new, they are also trying to learn a language that to them at this point in gibberish. This is an injustice!!!!