Dear Families,

Just as the immigration debate heats up in Congress, interest also builds within our Fourth Grade, whose year long study is, in fact, immigration. Recently, students were assigned an optional piece of homework – to prepare for an upcoming "Immigration Debate". Those interested were required to research different aspects of the issue and to respond to the following with six to ten persuasive points: "Should undocumented immigrants be allowed to stay in the United States and become citizens?" Points to ponder were provided by their teachers and students were advised that debate participants needed to be prepared to argue either side of the issue, not necessarily the one corresponding to their own points of view.

By Wednesday, eight students in each classroom were seated behind tables ready to share opening comments and to follow up with rebuttal arguments. Fourth Graders stepped into this arena with a level of seriousness, commitment and respect for complexity that made us all proud.

Those debaters who felt that guest workers should remain in the U.S. raised the following points:

• We are a nation of immigrants; this is the land of opportunity. All immigrants add diversity to this culture.
• Immigrants have children who are American citizens and families would be separated from each other if undocumented workers were sent back to their homelands.
• Undocumented workers’ countries are very poor. These people are just trying to survive and they risked their lives to get here.
• They help the economy and do jobs that Americans won’t do.
• They would legalize themselves if they could.
• They have roots in their communities and they work hard. If 13 million people go away, we’ll lose billions of dollars.
  

The other side of the issue was represented as follows:

• "Illegal immigrants" could have criminal records, but we wouldn’t know it. Some may be smuggling weapons into our country.
• Some may take jobs away from citizens, from the homeless – and from legal immigrants who worked hard to get here.
• If all undocumented workers stay here, English won’t be the main language anymore.
• Undocumented immigrants send the money they earn back to their homelands and that affects our economy.
• States near the Mexican border can’t support the needs of these immigrant families. Many undocumented immigrants don’t pay taxes.
• They broke the law to get here, so they can be considered criminals.

Afterward, students in attendance rated the two opposing teams according to: Quality of arguments (Were they persuasive?), Communication (Did they make their points clear?) and Etiquette (Were they polite and respectful?) They assigned a numerical value to each criterion and a winning team was identified. In their concluding conversations, students recognized that this experience had allowed them to "step into other people’s shoes", to empathize and connect with points of view other than their own. They said they had learned more than they had expected to, and importantly, they had been able to disagree respectfully. Bravo!

Congratulations to teachers Suzanne Cohen, Erin Hannon, Patricia Conroy and Carin Cohen for creating and structuring this inspiring forum! And to the Fourth Grade students who today took a big step toward Middle School maturity as they dove into the complexity of this very real issue.

Elaine

This Week's Attachments:
Early Kindergarten
Fours and Early Kindergarten Song Lyrics
Kindergarten Song Lyrics
Afterschool Enrichment Share
Afterschool Piano Recital and Instrumental Concert
Spanish Resource List

Click here to see a list of the colleges that our seniors have enrolled in for the past three years. This year's class, like their predecessors, had a successful college search process. We are proud of each of them. A list of this year's acceptances can be found at www.lrei.org. Congratulations LREI Class of 2006!

Announcements:

LREI Summer Fun-Raiser - the Fun-raiser is tonight! Click here for details.

Field Day - Field Day is tomorrow - Friday, May 26. This is a time for children to have fun outdoors with their buddies. School will dismiss at 1:00 (Fours-Fourth Grades, 12:45). Please note that these times are different than our typical half-day dismissals.

Message from the Librarians:
It's that time of year again! The library will be closed to circulation beginning May 30. Books may be checked in, but not checked out. Please bring back all outstanding material as soon as possible so that the librarians can check in and inventory our collection. The library space will be available as always to students and their parents during school hours.

Upcoming Events:

5/25 - TONIGHT! - Summer Fun-Raiser!

5/26 - TOMORROW! - Field Day!

5/29 - School Closed for Memorial Day

5/31 - 6:00PM - Brooke and Charles' Kindergarten Picnic

6/5 - 6:00PM - Jamie and Dave's First Grade Picnic

6/6 - 6:00PM - Michelle and Laura's Fours Picnic

6/7 - 6:00PM - Luise and Julia's Kindergarten Picnic

6/8 - 8:45AM - Multicultural Committee Meeting

6/8 - 6:00PM - Diane and Molly's Early Kindergarten Picnic

6/9 - High School Graduation - School closes at 12:00PM (Fours-First Grades, 11:45AM)

6/12 - 9:00AM - Fourth Grade Moving Up Ceremony, Auditorium

6/13 - Last Day of School - School Closes at 12:00PM (Fours-First Grades, 11:45AM)

Click here to access the full calendar.