If Newt Gingrich’s recent suggestions become a reality, anyone studying in U.S. schools won’t need to know certain phrases thrown around by millions of people every day.

The former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich told more than 100 supportive members of the National Federation of Republican Women that U.S. education systems should drop bilingual programs. He said students should only be taught English “so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto,” as reported in a March 31 Associated Press article.

By alluding that Spanish and other non-English languages are spoken “in the ghetto,” the former speaker exposed his ignorancia. Not everyone whose primera idioma isn’t English lives in a ghetto. One in every five U.S. households converses in a different language, according to a 2003 U.S. Census Bureau report.

And the term “ghetto” has negative connotaciones. It conjures images of poverty, crime and violence. By tying foreign languages to ghettos, Gingrich tied non-English speakers to these desagradable realities.

Gingrich’s education plan seems almost isolationist. It ignores the ease in which U.S. citizens — native English speakers or not — can leave los Estados Unidos y hablar con otras personas. Even if most Americans speak English, not all countries’ citizens speak it. Gingrich must not discourage students from learning other languages unless he expects the entire world to conform to America’s English-speaking standards.

And U.S. leaders should not diminish America’s cultural diversity, because the country has a great history. The United States was famously dubbed a melting pot as 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island, until it shut down operations in 1954. Keeping true to our country’s cultural and lingual diversity should be embraced, not suppressed.

Most Spanish speakers don’t refuse to learn English, either. As Peter Zamora, co-chair of the Washington-based Hispanic Education Coalition told the AP, immigrants are aware they have a better shot at succeeding in the United States if they learn English.

And an educación bilingüe is the most appropriate way to teach English to non-native speakers. According to a 2000 study that compared English-immersed students to students in bilingual programs, by the fifth grade, the majority of bilingual students out-scored their counterparts on English-proficiency exams.

Unfortunately, there is some legitimacy to Gingrich’s call to make English the official language in the United States. Doing so would help unify the country and standardize legal and political procedures. Several states have already adopted this policy, and last month, Idaho became the 29th state to make English its official language.

But Gingrich’s statements about bilingual education included hateful language. It is appalling that a potential presidential candidate can speak so bluntly and arrogantly about cultures and toss around stereotypes. What’s even worse is that he was supported by a cheering crowd. Qué barbaridad.