BYRON DE ARAKAL -- Between the Lines

I’ve never thought complaining to distant, lumbering bureaucracies is

nearly as effective as appealing to the better nature of a community’s

residents. Let’s see if I’m right.

On Sunday, Norma Merrifield stood before the congregation of Harbor

Trinity Church in Costa Mesa and issued a humble but nonetheless

impassioned appeal. Merrifield is a teacher at Wilson Elementary School,

where some eight out of 10 students, she says, are Latino kids working

their hearts out to master the English language. To not only speak it and

write it, but read it as well.

And despite the fact that for months now members of the Harbor Trinity

congregation have shared some of their time with the

limited-English-speaking kids at Wilson, tutoring them, reading to them

and listening to these youngsters read, the school still faces a critical

shortage of volunteers.

For every one of these kids, a solid education is the gateway to a

future far more promising and prosperous than the lives their parents

have known. But too often the limits of their proficiency in English make

school a bewildering and frightening exercise in frustration and

underachievement. Not because they don’t share the same enthusiasm for

learning as their more English-proficient classmates, but because the

language of the classroom is still new to them. Indeed, intimidating.

These are children, Merrifield said, who often aren’t read to at home.

And on the occasions when their folks do find some time to explore a book

with them, it’s usually heard in their native Spanish. Because of their

lack of exposure to the English language on the home front and the

precious little human resources the Newport-Mesa Unified School District

is able to devote to their immersion in the language during the school

day, these children too often fall behind. Worse, many of them never

catch up.

So there stood Merrifield putting out the word for volunteer tutors.

People with caring hearts and supportive words willing to invest an hour

of their time each week to read and be read to.

A few days earlier, it came to light that Costa Mesa resident Mirna

Burciaga had filed a formal complaint with the California Department of

Education alleging, among other things, that many Latino kids attending

Newport-Mesa schools “are often placed on a track for failure.”

Falling squarely within the cross hairs of Burciaga’s complaint was

TeWinkle Middle School, a fine institution, in my estimation, that

educated my oldest boy and is imparting a fine education to my other son.

It will do the same, I’m confident, for my two daughters.

Among Burciaga’s charges are the allegations that too many Latino

students are not being exposed, as required by state law, to the core

subjects of math, science and English. Strangely, the same complaint

accuses TeWinkle of placing limited-English-proficient kids in

“mainstream” classes before they are ready.

It is a confounding “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” pickle

that TeWinkle Principal Sharon Fry finds herself in. On the one hand, she

isn’t pushing these kids hard enough, and on the other she is expecting

too much.

Nevertheless, Fry categorically refutes both charges. Meanwhile, the

bureaucratic machinery of the state is investigating.

So what we have here, by my measure, is demand for government

intervention and a supplication for volunteerism to solve a common

problem. We can agree that far too many children are making it to middle

school not having mastered the nuances of the English language. They

deserve better and the brilliance of their future demands it.

But Burciaga’s grievance girds for some government finding of fact

that the Latino students of Newport-Mesa Unified are being deprived

deliberately of a quality education they rightly deserve. That implies

that there is a suspect to be rounded up, that there is blame to be laid.

Even were that true, and I don’t buy it, the solution she’s seeking isn’t

exactly apparent.

Merrifield is appealing to the good people of Newport-Mesa to become

part of the children’s education, and thus their future. No complaints.

No investigations. Just a mobilization of good-hearted folks willing to

sit down with some kids and share a good book or two.

I prefer Merrifield’s tack. It’s positive and productive.

So here’s the test, folks. Let’s have no more bellyaching about low

test scores or the schools on the Westside. Put those flaming arrows

meant for the Newport-Mesa Unified board of trustees back in the quiver.

Find an hour in your week and give it up to a kid trying to learn a

strange language. Help them find the key to a happy, healthy and

productive life. Read a book to them. Let them read one to you.

To volunteer at Wilson Elementary School, you may leave a message for

Merrifield by calling Harbor Trinity Church at (714) 556-7787. And if you

want to step to the plate at the school in your neighborhood, give them a

call. They’re in the book.

* BYRON DE ARAKAL is a writer and communications consultant. He lives

in Costa Mesa. His column runs Wednesdays. Readers may reach him with

news tips and comments via e-mail at [email protected].