'Now I Can Stand Up For Myself'

This new program teaches immigrant mothers English for two hours and then the mothers join their children in their classroom and they learn together. DP

An innovative program teaches immigrant mothers and their children side by side

By Sheila Weller

For most of their young lives in Arkansas, Maria and Abril Guerra, now 11 and 9, tensed up whenever their mother, Nora Sandoval, approached a store clerk. "I no speak English," Sandoval would begin when puzzled by a price or attempting to find a product. She'd finished sixth grade back in Mexico and to her daughters was smart and capable, but clerks usually greeted her with condescension and annoyance.

"I was furious! I wanted to stand up for my mother!" Maria says, breaking into sobs as she remembers her mother's embarrassment.

For Sandoval, not being able to speak English was painful. But even worse, the language barrier made her feel helpless as a mother. She couldn't fill out her daughters' school forms. One night Abril ran into a doorjamb, and blood gushed. Sandoval knew that if she dialed 911, she wouldn't be able to ask for help in English. Luckily, her husband, Ricardo, was home from his gardener's job and drove Abril to the emergency room for stitches.

The shame and frustration are behind Sandoval now. Thanks to a revolutionary family-literacy program that focuses on immigrants who can't speak English, Sandoval not only speaks English but also reads and writes it. Every weekday morning, she goes to school with her two older girls. (Two younger daughters, ages 3 and 1, are either in day care or at home with their father.) With other Spanish-speaking moms, she participates in a two-hour English class given at her daughters' school. After that, Sandoval goes to Abril's third-grade classroom where, for the next hour, mother and daughter are classmates, learning together.
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