Just as Rylee was completing a nearly perfect pirouette, she realized she wasn't alone in the room. Her instructor, Madame Steinberg, was standing in the doorway, watching her.
Herinstructor, Amanda Eckhardt, testified this week that she stood by the grade, saying Thode failed to behave professionally and thus earned zero out of 25 points in class participation, bumping her down a full letter grade.
Instead of welcoming each new immigrant as a potential instructor of his or her language in exchange for learning English, we have marginalized our immigrant population and reject their mother tongues while offering antiquated, often inaccessible English training.