第49页 Society

Schools in Holland have considerable Turkish and Moroccan student minorities. The state tries to ensure that these students will not be disadvantaged in school by making them equal to 1.9 statistical students. Extra lessons in their own language and culture are available to them if their parents choose for their children to attend. The school staff feels, however, that their minority students could better use the time spent on parental language and culture to learn Dutch language and culture instead. Their reasoning is that most, if not all, of the children will never return to live in their parents’ home country, so a good command of Dutch language and culture will make them better equipped to succeed in their new homeland.
 In predominately ethnic minority schools, such as the ones in Amsterdam, a significant problem is the parents’ lack of desire to be integrated into Dutch society. They continue to live in their own culture and to speak their native language at home, to the exclusion of things Dutch. When, for example, a teacher at one of these schools gave their second- and third-grade classes a homework assignment to watch a television program about the environment for discussion in class the next day, over half the class could not watch the program, because their parents program their sets to omit all the Dutch television channels. They have only Moroccan channels to watch.
 For children from families like these, school is the only place that they can learn Dutch. When there is a single predominant ethnic group in a school, it is easy for the children to speak their native language among themselves, which weakens their need to speak Dutch. Studies have shown that a deficiency in Dutch language skills leads to poorer performance in other school subjects. Poor Dutch and academic skills mean that these children will not be able to get ahead in Dutch society and will remain confined to the ethnic ghettos in which they now live.
 Until 1970, French was offered in elementary school as an elective. In 1970, the law was changed to make English the foreign language of choice in elementary school. English is taught beginning in the fifth grade, and it continues through high school.  In addition to English, college-bound high school students also have to take German and French. Those who take the classical Gymnasium track learn Latin and Greek. Those who take the Atheneum track do not. Students who will take a terminal high school degree or go on to a technical or vocational college continue with English and must choose one of the following for a second foreign language: German, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Turkish, Frisian, or Italian.