Those who read this website may get the mistaken idea that bilingualism is good for everybody. That is not necessarily the case. Let us begin by separating bilingualism from bilingual education - the effort to teach children in their mother tongue rather than in the local language.

There are many arguments against bilingual education:

• It is not effective
  • Research is inconsistent and contradictory
• Immersion is better
  • See other articles about immersion and submersion
• It postpones assimilation in the adoptive country
  • It creates a second generation of immigrants
  • It perpetuates cultural divisions, segregation, and alienation
  • It is like forming a self-imposed ghetto
• It is expensive
  • A system must be established to parallel the existing framework

The arguments against bilingual education joined the already existing doubts about the very concept of bilingualism:

• It labels people
• It is difficult to find the "best" method
• Studing two languages at the same time may be difficult or confusing
• The children's peers may tease them because they are different
• The dominant majority language makes it difficult to insist on speaking a foreign language
• The child probably does not need the parent's language in his daily life

This wave of arguments against bilingualism did cause some people to reconsider their goals for raising their children.