Your child's kindergarten teacher may urge you to refrain from raising your child as a bilingual. The reasons given may be as follows:

• The child will not understand what is happening in class
• The child will be "different"

Those arguments are quite powerful and they do contain a modicum of truth. However, do they reflect the real reasons why the teacher is afraid of bilinguals?

More likely, the teacher is concerned that her own job will be more difficult. She is thinking about her own convenience, rather than the advantages to the child.

The teacher will have to spend additional time with your child, and she will have to find alternative methods to communicate when he does not understand. She does not want to be bothered.

However, if you work together with the teacher before the child begins school, and offer practical suggestions, then the teacher may be less reticent about what seems to her like a daunting task. After all, it is unlikely that she was trained to deal with bilinguals in the classroom.

Calm the teacher down about your expectations. Help her understand that within several months the child will understand enough to function in class.

When she realizes that you won't consider her to be a failure if she does not communicate with him successfully in the beginning, then she may be able to work with your child in a more relaxed manner.