I'm writing a book about a charter high school that targets D and F students, and tries to prepare them for college. About 85 percent are Hispanic, mostly from Mexican immigrant families. Almost all went through bilingual education. Typically, their parents speak little or no English.

The kids all speak conversational English, often as their preferred language, but they don't have the vocabularies to understand what they read. And most have limited vocabularies in Spanish, because they've picked it up from their poorly educated parents. They're semi-literate in two languages.

Children raised by educated parents enter school with good language skills. They can learn a new language quickly and easily. Every kid I've talked to said it took till Christmas to speak playground English; by the end of kindergarten, they were fluent.

Children raised by uneducated parents -- that is, by the typical Mexican immigrant family -- enter school with poor Spanish skills and often with poor English skills too. In the bilingual model used here, they're taught 90 percent of the time in Spanish, 10 percent in English for the first two years. Then they slowly get more English.

Often they're taught by the aide, because the teacher isn't really bilingual. The curriculum is dumbed down, because they're considered less able learners. They're not supposed to be taught to read in English till they've learned to read in Spanish. That could mean they don't start reading in English till third, fourth or fifth grade. usually, the teacher will switch them to English by third grade, whether they can read in Spanish or not. Basically, they get stuck betwixt and between, with poor mastery of both languages.

Parents, by the way, want their children to learn English and often protest when their kids are placed in bilingual classes with very little English. But uneducated Mexican parents tend to be very deferential to authority. The experts tell them bilingual ed works, and the parents go along.

Bilingual ed for middle-class children is very different. Usually, these are boutique programs taught by competent teachers, not aides, with high-level curriculum. Students often do quite well, though disadvantaged children may suffer from inadequate practice in English at home.

At "my" charter school, all instruction is in English. It's tough for the new immigrants at first, but the teachers tell them that they'll need English for college and for good jobs, and they know that's true. I was thrilled to learn that Roberto, who spoke almost no English when he started ninth grade, made the honor roll by the end of 10th grade.

I've always assumed that light skin was preferred because in agricultural societies the peasants are
working in the sun and the aristocrats are lounging in the shade. Affluence was pale. Only in the modern era are the affluent lying in the sun getting tanned while the poor labor inside under fluorescent lights.