Bilingualism and Homosexuality

Does anyone else feel like this book was a big waste of money? All I read in this book is problems, problems, problems. The solutions offered usually speak in terms of scholastic glittering generalities. "Recognizing the complexity of the individual, family, and social dynamics of adolescent development can be invaluable to gay, lesbian, and "straight" students alike." Sounds great, but what does it mean? I've read some blogs where people talk about clubs in their schools for gay and lesbian students; I would be more interested to hear the dynamics of their stories. How did students, parents, and teachers react to the formation of these groups? I don't think its impossible to institute such programs in all schools, but it is certainly more difficult in some settings. In the context of the urban school setting, I think it would be rather difficult to form such groups. The article eluded to the point that certain minority groups have hyper inflated ideas about gender roles, a phenomenon in Hispanic culture known as "machisimo". Certainly progress has been made in recent years, but their still exists a deeply ingrained homophobic sentiment in our society, a sentiment that is not only socially formed but culturally as well. This article could have spent one page talking about the problem, and the rest could have provided solutions and examples.
The article on language could have also been much more interesting. Once again it was all about the problem. What about the fact that in many societies, bilingualism is the rule and not the exception. Most of the focus of this article was on ESL students, but I think the bigger issue is a lack of Americans who can speak a second language. Being bilingual is an invaluable asset in almost every career field, and yet, our nation's colleges and universities don't really emphasize its importance. In most cases, all that is required is two years of a foreign language in high school. Most high school Spanish classes are a joke, I know some people who took four years of Spanish in high school and can't remember a single word other than, Como te llamas? I myself was a Spanish minor at one point, but I had to give it up because it would have meant me spending another 1yr and a half to 2yrs in college. When I think of all the useless time and money I've spent in classes that will have no bearing on my ability to teach, it infuriates me to no end. So far, every education class I have taken has just been a regurgitation of the information I learned last semester. All this time, I could have been learning another language.