Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Students at a Worcester charter school are going straight to the White House in an effort to change what they feel is a stigmatizing label given to students learning English.
The Telegram & Gazette reports that students at Seven Hills Charter Public School filed a petition on the White House website seeking to retire the phrase "English language learner," or ELL.
The petition says these kids should be called "multilingual students." They say this term "more accurately represents their intelligence and abilities."
Their teacher, Christine Olsen, says she first started thinking about the problems with the ELL label a year ago after attending a conference about bilingual students. She says her students told her the label made them feel "stupid" and not "good enough in the eyes of their peers."
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
