Act on foreign language

Albert Einstein once mused that, "In the middle of difficulty lies

opportunity." That lesson holds great value when applied to handling and

reacting to public wants and desires - especially where education and money

are concerned.

The Columbia County Board of Education finds itself in an unenviable

position where a majority of parents want to implement a countywide foreign

language program; however, the school administration insists it's not

affordable. Herein lies the difficulty.

Faced with this challenging situation, perhaps the trustees should approach

this decision as it would any policy decision by asking two very

straightforward questions: "'Is this endeavor realistic?' and 'Will it truly

benefit our students?'" If the answer to both is "yes," then our Board

members should weed through the inevitable naysayers and aggressively seek

out the best way to make it happen. Plain and simple. You'd be amazed how

quickly school administrators fall in line when a majority of the board

wants something!

Few would deny that Americans fluent in other languages enhance our nation's

economic competitiveness, improve global communication and maintain our

political and security interests. This position is seemingly not lost on the

Columbia County school system mission statement, which boasts of striving to

develop world-class citizens. That's a splendid sentiment, but we should

probably do more to fulfill this lofty goal than simply write about it. We

must aggressively support curricula that actually look beyond county, state

and national boundaries.

Leading research shows that learning a foreign language is easier when

taught at a young age. Dr. Susan Curtiss, a noted professor of Linguistics

at UCLA, studied the way children learn languages. She concluded that in

language development, the power to learn language is so great in the young

child that it does not seem to matter how many languages you expose them to.

Their brain is "ripe" for this learning. She found that when children wait

until high school to start studying a foreign language, the job gets much

harder. The task then involves learning the rules of grammar, translating,

reading and trying to develop language learning strategies.

I respectfully submit that our school leaders are long overdue in providing

a clear commitment to growing the foreign language program to include not

only a select few, but for all children in our system. Let us not forget

that elementary foreign language instruction has been used successfully as a

pilot program in our county for over seven years, all accomplished without

the need to eliminate any P.E., music or art classes.

The real question before the board is not whether the school system can pay

for a comprehensive K-8 foreign language program, but rather, how can it

afford not to? The board should consider examining the budget to find

opportunities for funding - literally line-by-line, if necessary.

There are a number of cost-cutting measures that can be explored: reducing

administrator travel and associated dues and conferences; restructuring

future sales tax allocations to relieve general budget items such as bus

expenditures; revising our energy consumption plan to include negotiating

lower utility rates; not filling non-essential personnel positions as they

become vacant through attrition and retirement; and better use of

professional grant writers at the county level to secure federal, state and

local funds and/or endowments for the benefit of our schools.

Admittedly, these ideas are neither new nor comprehensive. But why

shouldn't they be a part of an objective process of identifying viable

funding solutions? Keeping the status quo and rubber-stamping administration

recommendations is no longer an option during these tough economic times.

Einstein also said insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and

expecting different results." As good as our student achievement results

are, we can do better. While we currently exceed many state and national

testing standards, we should insist that our school system take the next

step and offer a more comprehensive, global perspective to academic

offerings for our K-8 students. To do so, our elected officials must respond

to constituent wishes and provide definitive leadership that implements a

countywide foreign language program without further delay.

A genuine, world-class education hangs in the balance.

(Donald Porter, a Martinez resident, is guidance coordinator and statistical

analyst for the Guidance, Testing and Research Department of the Richmond

County Board of Education, and father of two children who attend Stevens

Creek Elementary School.)