Comments RE Call for response: Tipoff from Becky Kline RE: article in AMERICAN EDUCATOR

[smcginnis at nflc.org]

From:  ShepherdFam7 at aol.com
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 2002 21:16:50 EDT

Response:

Having started a charter school for a dual (Spanish-English) curriculum, I
feel the need for better arguments for a second language. My arguments to
parents were that language benefits in 3 ways:
socially--greater range of friends, contacts; careerwise--wider range of
jobs; academically--more avenues for success in school.

I tried the "national interest" arguments but was advised to stick to the
personal benefits for individual students. The problem for most of us is
that
we do not want to work hard enough to master a language. We want quick
results for everything.

We wrote the curriculum into the charter in hopes of shielding it from the
political winds surrounding language issues. No luck. Monolingual politics
governs all.

Mike Shepherd
Dallas

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