Ines Maria Mendoza de Mu~oz Marin

1. What did Inés Maria Mendoza de Muñoz Marín through her fight with the Department of Education?

Due to the very limited amount of reliable information I found specifically about Inés Maria Mendoza de Mu~oz Marin and her fight with the Dept. of Education I can only briefly comment and react on said topic (Ines and her struggle with the PR Dept. of Educ.). Nonetheless, what I did learn was that she struggled (in 1937) to make the Department realize that – in Puerto Rico – teaching all the school subjects (science, social studies, math, etc.) in English was not so much a social situation, but rather a political one. She fought to make the Department re-establish the use of the Puerto Rican mother tongue (Spanish) as the primary teaching language. Inés believed that our mother tongue – Spanish – enabled us to achieve liberty and the beauty of the equality of rights and social justice. Therefore Inés, being an English teacher herself , wanted the department of Education to be aware of the significance, value and political strength the Spanish language offered – and still offers – the Puerto Rican society, although she obviously also thought that the learning of a second language (such as English) was also important, but on a secondary, less politically charged, level.


2. How does her achievement help us as English teachers?

To my belief, what Inés contributes to us as English teachers is to help us better grasp and comprehend that the teaching of the English language should be kept as a second language. She helps us realize that our role is to enrich our students’ cultural growth by helping them learn a language that will undoubtedly broaden their general knowledge about the globalized world we live in. Inés serves as a great example that we should strive to conserve our mother tongue (Spanish) and to teach the English language as a complementary subject – not as the basis of our education. In other words, English should contribute to the betterment of our students’ academic and social development – English should not be forced on our students – because it could possibly serve as a control mechanism that could ultimately cause us to lose our culture, our social identity as Puerto Ricans.


3. Did Ines help Puerto Rican students learn English?

To my understanding, at the very core (center) of Ines Maria's struggle with the Dept. of Education, she did help Puerto Rican students learn English. As I have mentioned before, being that Spanish is the native tongue in Puerto Rico, it was essential and vital for students to learn their mother tongue properly before attempting to acquire a new (second) language. It is my belief, that in order for Puerto Rican children to acquire a second language they need to have a strong and well formed base on their native tongue - Spanish. Therefore in my opinion, through her obvious knowledge of the cognitive (and educational) process, Ines did help Puerto Rican students learn English, but in a long-term/more effective way than the process that was being used prior to her intervention and "fight" with the Dept. of Education.

Resources:

1. http://www.munoz- marin.org/pags_nuevas_folder/biografia_folder/bio_imm.html

2. http://www.zonai.com/promociones/biografias/0101/ines.asp