ABSTRACT

Summary: The contemporary American school's response to the bilingual child cannot be understood unless it is placed in the historical context of that society's earlier responses to the immigrant communities and their children: alongside the school's concerns with cognitive development must be placed the greater society's commitment to enforced assimilation (ie Americanization), English language acquisition (with concomitant neglect and rejection of the child's native language), and Anglo-Saxon conformism. The Puerto Rican child is the heir to a complex set of societal responses developed over a long period of time, and the success or failure of the American school's response to his needs depends on the careful management of forces which may preclude the implementation of programmes which incorporate empirically valid learning principles.

The chapter addresses itself to the educational needs of Puerto Rican children in American mainland schools, with a primary attention to the delineation of a programme which gives promise of cognitive developmental success and assures a psychological maturation congruent with the realities of American societal structure.