When was the last time you heard something positive about bilingual education? Are there ways to support our children and students as they learn English or a world language?
Multilingual Chicago presents "Moving Ahead with Bilingual Education", a forum for teachers and parents on Saturday, June 2, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at St. Augustine College, 1345 West Argyle Street in Chicago. There will be food, friendship and parking -- and it's FREE! CPDUs are available for teachers.

Come visit the PRAA Cultural Center, 3000 North Elbridge, to see "Beyond Baseball: The Life of Roberto Clemente." This traveling Smithsonian exhibit is available until June 3, 2012. Gallery hours are from 10:00 am - 4:30 pm Tuesday through Friday and on Saturday and Sunday from 10:30 am - 1:30 pm. Admission is FREE. For more information call the Center at 773-342-8865.

DID YOU KNOW? The Los Angeles City Council recently approved a resolution which recalls the forcible removal of Mexican Americans during the Great Depression. More than 2 million people of Mexican descent were forcibly relocated to Mexico between 1929 and 1944. In California alone, 400,000 American citizens were relocated, many of whom were never able to return to the United States.

More than a dozen languages are spoken by hair stylists at GALLERY OF HAIR, 6500 W. Irving Park. According to Michael Giandonato at GALLERY, stylists can assist you in English or in one of the following languages: Italian, Spanish, Greek, German, Russian, Albanian, Arabic, Lithuanian, Romanian, Polish, French, Assyrian and Portuguese. If you have a language preference, just make it known when you call for an appointment at 773-283-0000 or just visit at galleryofhair@yahoo.com

The Chiago Botanic Gardens traditionally holds Japanese garden festivals three times a year in March, May and August. This year the March event will be held Saturday, March 24 and Sunday, March 25, 2012. The Saturday event, "Resilience: Lessons from Japan" starting at 4 P.M., is a tribute created to remember the devastating tsunami, earthquake and nuclear disaster Japan experienced a year ago. It honors the resilience of the Japanese people. Dance, taiko drumming and garden-inspired lectures are presented by five Japanese Americans.

Enter into the world of real books in Spanish! TRES AMERICAS BOOKS, 4336 N. Pulaski Rd.,(773) 481-9090, will be celebrating its 24th Anniversary in August. Take a tour with the always pleasant Mr. Humberto Gamboa. He will show you Spanish books for every age and taste: great literature, history, science, humor, children's favorites -- even CDs in Spanish. TRES AMERICAS also has materials to help you acquire Spanish or English. You can find text and workbooks for your child or school. Ask for a coupon for the in-store sale ending March 31, 2012.

According to a January 11, 2012, article in "Education Week," the omnibus federal spending bill for fiscal 2012 eliminated $27 million for the Foreign Language Assistance Program, in operation for the past twenty years. Some foreign language programs that received multi-year funding will even lose 2012 funds previously approved.

Washington Learning Systems is making available, at no cost, activities to support the literacy of young children (0-5) in English, Spanish, Vienamese, Mandarin, Somali, Burmese, and Russian. Each activity includes a desription and hints for making the activity fun and developmentally appropriate. An activity checklist helps family members, caregivers and teachers observe skill development. Read on to access these free and reproducible materials.

LOS DESAPARECIDOS: A forum in panel format will be held at the NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MEXICAN ART, 1852 West 19th Street, Chicago, on Saturday, December 3, 2011, 12:30 to 3 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT? Hear five human rights advocates bear witness to the time when paramilitary groups in Latin America carried out brutal raids on tens of thousands of children, peasants, workers and students who vanished and were never heard from again.

Approximately 20% of the U.S. population speaks a language other than English. Some see linguistic diversity as a problem. Dr. Kim Potowski will make the presentation, WHEN "FOREIGN" LANGUAGES AREN'T FOREIGN: HERITAGE SPEAKERS IN THE UNITED STATES. Dr. Potowski, Associate Professor of Hispanic Linguistics at UIC, is the editor of the book, lANGUAGE DIVERSITY IN THE USA. She discusses the myths regarding language uses which are fairly prevalent in the U.S.even today.