A Nation at Risk...of being Monolingual
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
I am not a regular Anderson Cooper blog reader, but randomly fell upon it today and found this post, about the best way to instruct non-native English speaking students. A CNN correspondent wrote about his visit to a school in Texas where children were learning in both Spanish and English. He posed this question:
Is there an issue with American taxpayers footing the bill for public school education taught primarily in Spanish?
While some respondents disputed the issue, the majority consensus was that "This is America and we should all speak English."
As we now become a nation that has hit the 300 million population mark with a rapidly increasing diverse population, ethnically and linguistically, it amazes me the amount of concern to make sure all our children learn English. In an age of globalization and transatlantic communication, shouldn't we really be posing this question:
Isn't there an issue with the fact that we are the only country who does not value bilingualism?
In the next decade or so, over 25% of our school age population will be speaking other languages than English. While I support the learning and acquistion of the English language, it will be a huge missed opportunity for the nation if we don't look at ways to systematically and structurally capitalize on the diversity of our childrens' languages. If we don't start to become a country that values other languages besides English, we will really be a nation at risk....of ceasing to compete in a global market.
