Foreign language instruction vital for children

Contrary to popular belief, television really can be worthwhile. Just this week, it brought me inspiration in the form of Grammy Award winner Linda Ronstadt. Ronstadt, a native of Tucson, was in Phoenix on Oct. 1 to argue before the state's Board of Education.

In 1991, the board passed a mandate requiring all elementary and middle schools to teach foreign language as part of the daily curriculum. This policy was created to capitalize on the language learning abilities of younger children, proven time and time a gain to be far superior to that of teenagers and adults.

The board has been considering a proposal to remove this mandate from its slate of requirements. This idea has received strong criticism from some educators, while others argue that the program is under-funded and, thus, useless. These opponents of the foreign language curriculum claim that the under-funded program should be cut and the remaining money spent on other programs. Ronstadt and others rightly fired back.

Children have a tremendous ability to acquire language skills. Dr. Rosemary Rosser, states in her book "Cognitive Development: Psychological and Biological Perspectives."

"All languages are complex, and all children acquire language during early childhood as a function of being human." Dr. Rosser claims that language acquisition is a natural part of the development of any child.

The ability to acquire language is hindered later in life, as teenagers and adults have already developed their individual language abilities. After the initial period of intense language acquisition, humans are not able to pick up on languages as readily. It is more logical to introduce foreign language at a young age.

Ronstadt said that she wished she had been given the opportunity to learn a foreign language in elementary school. She took courses in Spanish and French at Catalina High School, but was forced to take intensive classes elsewhere to develop her fluency. R onstadt claimed that she was "gypped" by the educational system in Tucson.

"It's kind of a waste of time when you don't attempt (to learn another language) until high school," Ronstadt said in her address to the board.

She has gone right to the heart of the matter. High school language proficiency requirements are a joke. Any one of us could have taken two years of grammar quizzes and passed the high school language requirements. Just nod your head and say "SÁ" and you' ll pass high school Spanish ("Oui" for all of you who went the French route). As for the college requirements, anyone who had to go wait in front of the language lab for three hours knows how useful this training is. I don't know much, but I know this stinks.

The opponents of the mandate claim under-funding as the main stumbling block for the relatively new program. They figure the legislature should just rid itself of this pesky bit of cultural exposure because there is not enough money appropriated to suppor t it. Hmmm...so all programs that are currently lack funds should just be eliminated? I guess that solving the problem by funding the worthwhile curriculum is too obvious. We sure would not want to look for a way to keep the idea alive and make it work. W e should just let the program die because it is too much effort.

How on earth can the Board of Education, supposedly committed to educating the young people of this state, even think of removing this important program from schools? While we're at it, let's just follow Tucson's Sunnyside School District's example and no t teach geometry classes anymore. Hell, let's just bag the whole idea of education. Let's go through life stupid. They say that ignorance is bliss; let's test the theory.

If we allow young children to grow up without the influence of a foreign language, we are cheating them out of an invaluable piece of their education. We are creating a society whose ethnocentrism is rivaled only by its ignorance. The next generation of our country will complete the requirements to graduate from high school and college, but they will be terribly unaware of the other 95 percent of the world.

Jamie Kanter is a Spanish and psychology junior. His column, 'On the Flip Side,' appears every other Wednesday.


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