Your letters: Thursday

Un momento, por favor

There’s an old joke that goes like this: If you speak three languages, you’re trilingual; if you speak two languages, you’re bilingual; and if you speak one language, you’re American.

It’s amusing, but also sadly true for most of us.

I was delighted, therefore, to read Dena Pauling’s excellent article on the efforts of local teachers and schools to introduce foreign language instruction into their classrooms.

However, when I read that “No local elementary schools have foreign language classes,” I muttered, “Au contraire!”

I’m pleased to report that State College Friends School has included Spanish instruction in its program for all students, kindergarten through eighth grade, for 25 years. We’ve known that our students are unlikely to live in an English-only world as adults, and we’ve also been aware that it’s much easier for young children to become familiar with the rhythms and vocabulary of new languages than it is for adults.

There’s an optimal time for language learning, and I’m pleased that Friends School chose to take advantage of that window of opportunity many years ago.

As our world becomes smaller and the need to communicate with our fellow humans becomes more critical, I applaud the efforts of all of our local educators who are helping to expand our children’s horizons with the addition of foreign language instruction. It’s a step toward communication and understanding that can only benefit the world and all of its children.

Gracias por su tiempo.

Mary Ziegler, assistant head

State College Friends School

Too much of a good thing

The language barrier among school districts in the state is a crucial issue in education, yet one that must be put into perspective. Foreign languages are important for students to study, more so for the exposure to another culture than for the language itself. In the recent Centre Daily Times story, Bald Eagle Area’s director of elementary education, Marsha Sackash, pointed out some of the questions that need to be answered before simply asserting “it should be made a requirement that every student take foreign languages.”

Yet, what she is missing is the question underlying the big picture: Where do you draw the line?

As much of a practical and smart idea as it seems to be to teach children other languages in elementary school at the same time they are learning their own language, the school system must be careful not to overload students with too many languages. Doing so could distract students from fully grasping the sounds, spellings and structure of their primary language: English.

If multiple languages eventually are required even at the elementary school level, which ones and how many should be made requirements? Just Spanish, Chinese and French because they are the most commonly spoken throughout the U.S.? Doing so would leave out numerous other languages, yet it is impossible to hit them all, forcing school boards to pick and choose.

Beyond this, if foreign languages are to be incorporated into lessons, it must not become excessive to where it consumes the lesson itself.

Leanne Rohrbaugh

State College