We hear the argument, "China is the second largest country by size and most populous--and therefore the ability to speak Chinese will ultimately have value".
Right. And property values always rise. And 100-year storms only occur once in one hundred years.
There is also truth to the fact that in European countries, most people speak multiple languages. True. But in Europe, driving to another country is like driving to Chicago. We teach French and Spanish in this country because we have neighbors to the north and south that use these languages. If some massive tsunami managed to moved China closer, perhaps then there would be a need.
People! The generally recognized international language in the business world remains: ENGLISH.
Further, the United Nations has declared 6 languages to be "official" languages, but only English and French are considered to be working languages. The 6 languages, in alphabetical order, are: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish.
How much is this going to cost? And where is it budgeted?
How much will this quiet movement to develop a Chinese language program cost? And shouldn't the decision to offer it be APPROVED before we go and spend all this money travelling and what not? Somewhere in the 3.5% tax levy increase wethinks there is a lot of cash squirreled away to spend on these costs. Why? Who's in charge? Tim Culver? The school board? The taxpayers?
Why are we sending all even ONE individual to China? And what's the eventual payback?
When we started a French language program (curriculum), did we send the District Administrator and high school principal to Paris for a week? What about for Spanish? Trips to Barcelona? Madrid? Mexico?
And wouldn't the true value be obtained by the teachers that will actually be teaching the language and culture? And what is China getting in return? And what will THAT cost?
Tim Culver and Phil Frei want to know why the community distrusts them and won't call them directly when they have issues. Here is the answer: because people have no trust when leaders (in title) spend money frivolously and do things behind closed doors. When the checks have been cut, it's too late for anyone to say, Hey! Wait a minute here."
Is this just yet another passing fad?
There's some good information in the following link:
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/will-americans-really-learn-chinese/
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| http://www.gocomics.com/jeffdanziger/2010/04/20 |
It seems clear that it is a monumental challenge for someone to learn Chinese during high school (and that's only 3 years in Sun Prairie). All experts agree that IF one is to successfully learn one of the world's most difficult languages with its thousands of characters (the good news is that learning only about 3,000 characters is enough to get one around) and multiple intonations, it must be learned in elementary school (or befoire). Hmmmmm...remember Culver's deep desire to establish such a program? One can only assume that the language program --which has not been discussed publicly---will be incorporated at the high school level because we're sending high school principal Lisa Heipp to China. But maybe that's not the plan. Maybe she's just the lucky/special administrator that gets picked to go???
If this were some hoity toity private school district, by all means, you could spend the fat cat monies any way you choose. You could develop language programs for every own language if you please.
But it's not. This is a public, taxpayer funded school district. And the economy is killing people that earn only a small fraction of what the Sun Prairie decision-makers are earning. They don't feel the pain. And their spending habits only serve to further ravage a gaping wound.
Read more about the China School Administrator Shadowing Project (in which we are obviously participating):
http://www.thechinaexchangeinitiative.org/other-projects
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