
A telling sign of American education is the instruction of
foreign language. The world is fast becoming global and, while English will
continue to be the dominant language into the twenty-first century, the precipitous
rise of China has not much impacted pedagogy.
The big three foreign languages – Spanish,
German and French – remain the primary options on the curriculum menu –
provided they can be offered at all. Mandarin is on offer at a mere 4 percent
of future-oriented American schools.
We would be wise to do away with German and French
altogether and begin a massive campaign to teach our young Mandarin – giving
them and America the advantage it will reap well into the future. Yet it’s the
Chinese taking the initiative.
Excerpts from a New
York Times piece, January 21, 2010, written by Sam Dillon.
Foreign Languages Fade in Class — Except Chinese
WASHINGTON — Thousands of public schools stopped teaching
foreign languages in the last decade, according to a government-financed survey
— dismal news for a nation that needs more linguists to conduct its global
business and diplomacy.
But another contrary trend has educators and policy makers
abuzz: a rush by schools in all parts of America to offer instruction in
Chinese.
Some schools are paying for Chinese classes on their own,
but hundreds are getting some help. The Chinese government is sending teachers
from China to schools all over the world — and paying part of their salaries.
No one keeps an exact count, but rough calculations based on
the government’s survey suggest that perhaps 1,600 American public and private
schools are teaching Chinese, up from 300 or so a decade ago. And the numbers
are growing exponentially.
Among America’s approximately 27,500 middle and high schools
offering at least one foreign language, the proportion offering Chinese rose to
4 percent, from 1 percent, from 1997 to 2008.
“It’s really changing the language education landscape of
this country,” said Nancy C. Rhodes, a director at the center and co-author of
the survey.
“We’ve all been surprised that in such a short time Chinese
would grow to surpass A.P. German,” Mr. Packer said.
A decade ago, most of the schools with Chinese programs were
on the East and West Coasts. But in recent years, many schools have started
Chinese programs in heartland states, including Ohio and Illinois in the
Midwest, Texas and Georgia in the South, and Colorado and Utah in the Rocky Mountain
West.
America has had the study of a foreign language grow before,
only to see the bubble burst. Many schools began teaching Japanese in the
1980s, after Japan emerged as an economic rival. But thousands have dropped the
language, the survey found.
Japanese is not the only language that has declined.
Thousands of schools that offered French, German or Russian have stopped
teaching those languages, too, the survey found.
Experts said several factors were fueling the surge in
Chinese. Parents, students and educators recognize China’s emergence as an
important country and believe that fluency in its language can open
opportunities.
“Chinese is really taking root,” she said. Starting this
fall, Jackson High will begin phasing out its German program, she said.