In the past, school districts in Phoenix, Arizona confronted teachers with accents. They have gone as far as enlisting them in mandatory speech classes. Monitors were sent into classrooms to listen to the teacher’s articulation, but this has recently stopped because of federal investigation in civil rights violations. Russlynn H. Ali, the assistant federal secretary of education for civil rights, said that no other state monitors teacher’s articulation and she is happy to see steps taken to stop this discrimination. There are various opinions about whether this is considered discrimination, or whether it goes along with the guidelines for No Child Left behind.
While the opinion of this topic is very mixed in Arizona, I personally find it discriminatory. All over the country, people have different accents. A lot of times I cannot understand a deep southern accent or a strong Northern accent. Why are those okay, but a Spanish accent is not? I think it really comes down to Arizona discriminating Hispanic teachers and trying to get them out of the school systems. This is a global issue because if this behavior spread to other states, it may keep foreign teachers from coming and spreading their culture and knowledge. Discrimination like this can also cause problems between our government and Mexico’s government. Mexico plays a very large role in our economy, and we play a large role in theirs. If we create unnecessary problems between us, both countries can suffer. We need to put stereotypes aside, and assess teachers based on their ability to teach, not on their accent, whether it be American or Hispanic, or any other nationality.
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