The United States won control over Puerto Rico in 1898 after the Spanish-American War was over, Spain had surrendered the remainder of its overseas colonial empire to the United States. Even though Puerto Ricans were not considered citizens of the United States till 1917 with the Jones Act some say that “Puerto Ricans have been ‘born in the U.S.A’ since 1898.” (Nieto, 515) Once the United States had control over Puerto Rico, they had to decide the relationship with them and in 1952 they establish the status as a commonwealth. Puerto Rico gained its own Constitution and although they can organize their local government how they want to, Congress power over the U.S territory did not change or decreased. Once this relationship was established
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At the time the English language was significant in becoming American, the institution of school became a path for Puerto Ricans to learn this language and United States encourage students to attend schools. In Puerto Rico the learning of the English language began with books, books that contained “appropriate lesson, from pictures, words and sentences” (Eaton, 113) One of the first books used to teach English in Puerto Rico was Appleton’s First Reader, the book introduced pictures of things and people that Puerto Ricans did not have or knew about. The first page of the book was an illustration of three children who seemed to be of an elite class based on what they were wearing, they named the illustration “John and His Boat”. The characters in the book were not an accurate representation of Puerto Ricans which could have probably caused a sense of inferiority within the students. The book also didn’t acknowledge the girl’s names in the illustration it only focus on the boy named John. The book gave a sense of discrimination between genders on the first page. These books were used every day and in every page there was a new lesson or words that were to be taught by the teachers, who also didn’t understand the English language which made it difficult to teach to the …show more content…
In a letter to the English supervisors in Puerto Rico he states “You are not to remove or disparage Spanish, four hundred years the language of this people, in the use of which their ancestors lived and died and recorded their history.” (Eaton, 115). In Puerto Rico, students are not subtracting their culture because they live in their home culture. All of the students in Puerto Rico have similar cultural identifications, instead of removing that culture identification they add to it some of Americans culture such as the language. John Eaton gives permission to the English supervisors to teach the reading and writing of English because he knows they can do it properly. Their schooling is taught in Spanish whether its math, science, reading or writing, but it is also taught in English as an
At the time the English language was significant in becoming American, the institution of school became a path for Puerto Ricans to learn this language and United States encourage students to attend schools. In Puerto Rico the learning of the English language began with books, books that contained “appropriate lesson, from pictures, words and sentences” (Eaton, 113) One of the first books used to teach English in Puerto Rico was Appleton’s First Reader, the book introduced pictures of things and people that Puerto Ricans did not have or knew about. The first page of the book was an illustration of three children who seemed to be of an elite class based on what they were wearing, they named the illustration “John and His Boat”. The characters in the book were not an accurate representation of Puerto Ricans which could have probably caused a sense of inferiority within the students. The book also didn’t acknowledge the girl’s names in the illustration it only focus on the boy named John. The book gave a sense of discrimination between genders on the first page. These books were used every day and in every page there was a new lesson or words that were to be taught by the teachers, who also didn’t understand the English language which made it difficult to teach to the …show more content…
In a letter to the English supervisors in Puerto Rico he states “You are not to remove or disparage Spanish, four hundred years the language of this people, in the use of which their ancestors lived and died and recorded their history.” (Eaton, 115). In Puerto Rico, students are not subtracting their culture because they live in their home culture. All of the students in Puerto Rico have similar cultural identifications, instead of removing that culture identification they add to it some of Americans culture such as the language. John Eaton gives permission to the English supervisors to teach the reading and writing of English because he knows they can do it properly. Their schooling is taught in Spanish whether its math, science, reading or writing, but it is also taught in English as an