Meyer+v.+State+of+Nebraska+(1923)

Meyer v. State of Nebraska (1923) A teacher had instructed one of his students (who was 10 years old) in the German language. It was a law in tht state of Nebraska that it was illegal to instruct a young student who had not yet graduated from the 8th grade in a foreign language. It was considered to be a "a valid exercise of the police power." It went on to say that parents who move to this country should not teach their child in their native tongue because that makes them retain the ideas and culture of that native country which was viewed as a threat to American safety. There was a huge bias against foreigners in the decision of creating this police power of not allowing foreign languages to be taught to students younder than 8th grade. The teacher had been found guilty and was fined more than $25 but less than $100 for teaching a student a foreign language which was potentially damaging to the safety of our nation by allowing him to follow the culture of a foreign land and as a result be a threat to American safety.

This was amazing to me to see how much the view has changed. We teach elementary aged students in Spanish so they will be bi-lingual. We cater to the foreign language rather than expecting them to learn the mother tongue.

In the end the court found for the teacher since his instruction was not harmful to the student but they agreed that the state had the right to police power of enacting it as law.

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