Ethnic Diversity in South O.C. Schools on Rise

EL TORO — It’s time to say the Pledge of Allegiance at Gates Elementary School, a campus filled with about 700 rambunctious children.

Students scoot out of their chairs and place their hands over their hearts. A wave of diverse accents fills the rooms as the children recite their loyalty to the United States. For many, this country is their new home.

“Every morning we stand up together and say the Pledge of Allegiance. I hear all the accents melded right into each other,” said Bernie Grotsky, a sixth-grade teacher. “Saying the Pledge of Allegiance is a serious thing for these kids. They really mean it.”

In any one of Gates’ classrooms, different slices of the world can be found. Take Grotsky’s sixth-grade Room 1: Nicole Suarez is Colombian, Marcela Korpa is Czechoslovakian and Carmen Zeballos is Bolivian. Nearby sit Ya Yang, who is Taiwanese, and Cesar Ramos, a Mexican.

During the past decade, South County classrooms have evolved drastically. With the change in time has come an increase in the number of ethnically diverse students. At Gates, a school in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District, nearly one-third of the students do not speak or read English.

The change in the ethnic profile at Gates Elementary is indicative of similar changes throughout South County schools. Just 10 years ago, only a handful of schools in the area had more than a few students unable to speak English, says Maria Quezada, who coordinates Saddleback Valley’s English as a Second Language program. The impact of such diversity is becoming increasingly evident in South County schools, which already are struggling to provide classrooms for its bulging enrollments. In the past five years, minority enrollment has nearly doubled. Teachers are enrolling in multicultural workshops and signing up for bilingual training. School officials are creating innovative programs to make sure that tension does not grow among different groups.

They have virtually no choice. The rise in numbers is not a passing phase. South County can expect to see more of an increase in minority and immigrant students, whose numbers have soared statewide.

Certainly, the numbers are a far cry from those in other Orange County school districts where ethnic diversity has long since become a fact of life. For example, the student population in the Capistrano Unified School District is 81% white and 19% minority, whereas the student population in the Santa Ana Unified district is more than 90% minority. But the change in the Capistrano district is noteworthy, considering that schools in that district were virtually all-white as recently as the 1980s.

The increase is even more striking in the Saddleback Valley district, where the number of students classified as limited English proficient has jumped from 500 to 1,300 over the past four years--a 160% rise. Since last year, more than 270 teachers from the Saddleback Valley district have attended training workshops focusing on different cultures and teaching methods to keep up with the changes, Quezada said.

Similarly, 450 Capistrano district employees have attended cross-cultural workshops since September, 1990, said district spokeswoman Jacqueline Price.

In Saddleback Valley district’s cultural classes, teachers are encouraged to make the most of the growing diversity in their classrooms, said bilingual teacher Pat Insley.

“We encourage the teachers to tap their students’ knowledge of their own countries and relate it to school,” Insley said.

For example, for a lesson on nutrition, students are encouraged to bring ethnic foods to class. Not only do the teachers benefit, the youngsters learn how to be proud of their heritage and native language, Insley said. When the students are taught English, they are told not to forget their primary language.

“We want them to keep their own language,” Insley said. “Learning English is another plus, another advantage for them.”

Another advantage, teachers say, is that foreign-born students often share stories of their homelands during class lessons and recess. Some talk about the bustle of cities, others about small villages and mountain communities. For many of the American-born students in Room 1 at Gates Elementary, stories from classmates make foreign countries seem less alien.

“This school would be dull if everybody look and sound the same,” said 11-year-old Amber N. Brock. “I know people from Bolivia and Colombia and Hong Kong. It’s neat.”

Grotsky has been instructing sixth-graders in Room 1 since 1969. At the beginning of his career at Gates, the students in Grotsky’s classes were almost all white. A native New Yorker accustomed to a blend of cultures, Grotsky admits that he had difficulty adjusting to the lack of diversity in his classes. But there have been changes.

The proof is on the walls of his classroom. There, Grotsky has pinned up portraits from his previous classes. As the years progress, each class becomes more ethnically diverse. Now, half the students in his class are minorities.

As a result, Grotsky has had to adjust his teaching habits. He now uses more body language to communicate with students who do not speak English. And he encourages his students to help each other.

Grotsky has 30 students in Room 1--11 whites, nine Mexicans, two African-Americans, three Chinese, one Japanese, one Czech, two Colombians and one Bolivian.

Ruth Quintero’s family moved to Lake Forest from Colombia five years ago. The 12-year-old likes America, but she misses life in her native country. She would rather converse in Spanish with her friends and prefers traditional Colombian cuisine to peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches and french fries.

“In Colombia, we eat more rice and meat. There is better food,” Ruth said. “American food is the kind of stuff you put in a microwave.”

Her classmate, Marcela Korpa, 11, was born in Praha 9, a province in Czechoslovakia. Her family moved to the United States when she was 4. Her friends ask her how different school is in her homeland. Marcela says there is not much difference in the classroom.

“I tell them that we only talk different,” Marcela said. “But everything else is the same.”

Marcela also shares with her classmates tales of her old country. She remembers the games she played, the family she left behind, and the mountains and statues. She has even taught some of her classmates to say “How are you?” in Czech-- Jak se Mas?

“It makes me feel good,” Marcela said. “Nobody makes fun of me. People want to learn from me.”

Changing Faces In South County Schools

Whites make up 80% of the South County school districts of Capistrano Unified and Saddleback Valley Unified, but minority students are increasing steadily.

Student Profile

Minorities make up 20% of South County school enrollment.

White: 79.3%

Latino: 11.6%

Asian: 7.4%

Black: 1.5%

American Indian/Alaskan Native: 0.2%

Growing Fast: Latinos and Asians

Latinos

1987-88: 7.6%

1991-92: 11.6%

Asians

1987-88: 5.5%

1991-92: 7.4%

White Percentages Drop

1987-88: 85.8%

1991-92: 79.3%

NOTE: Asians include Pacific Islanders and Filipinos.

SOURCE: Orange County Department of Education