CHRISTINA BRAIT PAULSTON There is an important difference between merely
experimental and genuine experiment. The one may be a feeling for
novelty, the other is rationally based on experience seeking a better
way. - Frank Lloyd Wright Wright was talking about architecture, but the
same difference can be applied to analyzing the relationship between
standard and vernacular languages in bilingual education; surely we are
also seeking a better way to handle bilingual education based on
experience. How rationally based our efforts are, is another question.
Works on this and similar topics can at times become the scene for very
emotional-and very moving-presentations which sometimes are more utopian
than rational. One can perhaps call this a very 'rational' text, because
so few of the contributors are members of ethnic subordinate groups. Am
I suggesting that minority group members are less rational? Of course
not. I am suggesting that it is much easier to be calm, objective and
scholarly about the lot of others than about your own. The most salient
feature about the bilingual education of vernacular speaking groups is
the social and economic exploitation of its members by the dominant
group. The papers herein, treating bilingual education from a
psychological perspective, agree at least on the issue that an
understanding of the social and economic factors underlying bilingual
education is crucial for understanding the psychological studies on
bilingualism.