Bilingualism and the cultural and linguistic pluralism that it involves should be preserved and encouraged within the national educational system. Statistics concerning bilinguals on a national scale would present a more accurate picture if based on John Macnamara's definition of bilinguals as "persons who possess at least one of the language skills even to a minimal degree in the second language." The benefits of bilingualism, seen as linguistic and cultural pluralism, are unknown, but bilingualism has not been encouraged sufficiently to predict the benefits or the disadvantages. A national commitment to a program of bilingualism must be made before its true value can be known. (VM)