Goodbye Contemporary World History Honors, Hello Mandarin Chinese! Glenbard District 87, the state's third-largest, plans to add Chinese despite possible teacher layoffs, shortage of certified teachers.
Chinese classes thrive despite suburban school district cutbacks

probably more useful than "AP Human Geography"...one of the substitute classes for Contemp. world history honors.

they kept this class (CWHH) at one of the schools for next year. last week at the board meeting dr. meissen claimed that the teachers at west wanted to "kill" the class right away if it wasnt going to be part of the reg. curriculum. you could hear the gasp from the audience. sure, why teach it when you already know what's coming down from on high?

I'm not going to criticize the addition. Heck, I think there should be FAR more foreign language - Mandarin or other - in our grade schools.

Agreed. With China set to eclipse the United States. (how much do we owe them ) . We should have as many Chinese language speakers as possible.

Since you are leaving Illinois, maybe you could move there.

I work with several Chinese and Indian developers.

Almost to a person they feel that the future is back home that there are a lot more opportunities waiting for them there than there are here.

The Chinese I've met are the most vociferous about this. They are utterly convinced the future belongs to them. Its hard to argue with them about that.

The word in the business world is that this is going to be (if it's not already, this was a few years ago) the newest In Demand language skill. Because we do so much trade and business with China and because their population is such a large part of the global economy, it is going to be almost a necessity for anyone in mid to upper management. I believe last I heard, Mandarin was in higher demand than Cantonese....though that's not too far behind.

I agree with whomever said the foreign languages need to come earlier in life than high school. I couldn't conduct business using my high school (or even my college) French if my life depended upon it (unless it involved telling someone to go to the beach, library or hospital - that's about all I remember).

Interesting. I remember visionary parents discussing this in the early 60's... that Chinese (and Russian) should be taught in the expectation that both countries would evolve from being cold war enemies to future business/trading partners.

A note to my sainted Mother and Father: Hey Mom... hey Dad... You were right!

Lol @ Ted....

Mama, you're so right about that. Though as I recently pointed out to a friend of mine, it does depend on the reason behind taking it. Everyone I know who took Spanish because they figured it would be useful and needed that credit, doesn't remember any of it. I took French in hs because I'd always wanted to learn it, didn't need the credit because it fit into the same category as band, choir, and business classes (all of which I'd taken). While I'm not overly fluent in French, I can carry on a discussion relatively well. I figured it was because I wanted to learn it, so I retained it better.

My daughters both took Spanish class the first chance they had....of course, that could be because their district is made up of students who speak primarily spanish at home. But they decided that when they had the opportunity, they wanted to take it. I don't know how much they're retaining, but I know they enjoy it.