“ Yo me siento muy feliz porque yo hace mi proyecto ,” says a small blond third grader, sitting on the carpet (“I feel very happy because I does my project.”)
“ Hice mi proyecto ,” corrects teacher Maria Lomeli, speaking through a microphone linked to speakers set off to the side of the gathering (“I did my project”).
It’s a calm start to the 100th day of school at Desert Sands Unified School District’s Ronald Reagan Elementary, in Palm Desert, California. It’s Lomeli’s fifth year working on campus, and she has the classroom set up to foster a tranquil atmosphere. As students share how they’re feeling that day, the speakers play gentle piano music overlaid with nature sounds—chirping birds and rustling leaves.
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Relaxed, untroubled, and bilingual —it’s remarkable, particularly in the context of California’s history of roiling language education politics. From 1998 to 2016, Lomeli’s peaceful bilingual classroom would likely have been illicit, framed by political pressures, and—above all— illegal under California law .