Presenter: Elizabeth L. Sydnor

Recorder: Thomas Parker

July 2^, 2001

Summary of the Scene: this presentation contains demographic information that indicates the following:

There is a migration of Latino’s moving into the cities, and many of these Hispanics are illegal and illiterate—some in their own language and many in our language. Worse still, they do not have the means—jobs or money—to be educated. Like Moses leading his people out of Egypt in search of the "Promised Land", these people try for the better life, and they end up working in dead end jobs. What ends up happening to the other ethnicities (i.e. Blacks, Whites, Asian, etc.)? To answer the question, the other races move out, and slowly the English language moves with them. Houston and other cities end up looking like the Valley. Later, there will be no jobs to have because there are no English speakers.

Many of the establishments that we "Houstonians" have come to be familiar with, to take comfort in, and to rely on will become a vision of the past. Facilities like NASA, the medical center, and the universities will become a thing of the past because we will lack people of the English-speaking world to maintain them. Also, many of the companies of the North will stop working with their people in the South because there will be no on to work with. These projections will come to pass unless educational programs are developed to accommodate the many problems that illiteracy will provoke. Problems like this will occur and be staggering to the job industry by the year 2030. There will simply be no jobs. There will be few English speakers.

Primary Objective: (1) To identify and describe the problems associated with the migration pattern of Hispanics and the effect that illiteracy has on a region. (2) To demonstrate and prove that an apocalyptic movement can be in education.

Secondary Objective: To demonstrate that illiteracy is a big problem and to provide solutions.

Cisneros, Henry. "The Browning of Houston" Houston Metropolitan Magazine. 1992.

U.S. Census Bureau, 2001 website.

HISD website

1. This prophecy is data based; but is it really different from Revelations or Old Testament prophecy?
2. Is this racist or just an accurate picture?
3. Is the picture painted, a worse case scenario or is it realistic?
4. What can be done (realistically) to change the outcomes?
5. How can this story best be told to mobilize action?

Glenn: Future technology will eradicate the problem of English proficiency.

Keeley: Spoke of inclusion.

?: Why do we have this huge population of Spanish speaking students and we are still not teaching our children to speak Spanish? Who defines themselves as Hispanic? Opportunities are greater for minorities.

Terry: Frustrates me, my grandparents were polish immigrants, and they got an education encouraged by the Polish community.

Dr. White: The peculiarities of the Mexican Immigration--This was once Mexico.

Lacy: The attitude that they are bring their children here for an education while the parents work. There is a lack of emphasis on language education.

Val: Hope lies in the next generations.

Maria: She speaks of her background as a bilingual teacher and teaching the children to be bilingual. The parents of children are working and don’t have time for education. She also blames problems on the high birth rate due to religion.