← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · jeffersonian
Thread ID: 20864 | Posts: 12 | Started: 2005-11-02
2005-11-02 17:21 | User Profile
[URL="http://tampatrib.com/FloridaMetro/MGBDMY3OHFE.html"]http://tampatrib.com/FloridaMetro/MGBDMY3OHFE.html[/URL]
[QUOTE]Bill Mandates Youngsters Learn Spanish By KEVIN BEGOS [email]kbegos@tampatrib.com[/email] Published: Nov 1, 2005
TALLAHASSEE - -- All Florida students in kindergarten through second grade would get mandatory Spanish lessons starting in 2007 under a new bill filed by state Sen. Les Miller, D-Tampa.
"More and more of our young people need to learn a second language," said Miller, the Senate minority leader. "We just thought that this was a good start for these young people."
Some people like the idea but wonder about its practicality.
Younger students "learn a foreign language without pain," said Dorothy Carregal, superintendent of foreign languages for Hillsborough schools.
But the legislation, Senate Bill 522, doesn't say how schools would pay for the classes, other than to allow using state and private funds and grants.
If Miller's legislation becomes a mandate for schools, Carregal said it would create funding and personnel problems.
"And even if they give us the money, finding the teachers would be very difficult," she said.
In 1999, the Hillsborough County School Board found that 82 percent of parents were interested in elementary students learning conversational Spanish in class. But the board also found that twice-weekly classes for students in kindergarten through fifth grade could cost as much as $4.3 million in the first year.
A lack of funding helped kill the idea of offering the instruction systemwide, but Carregal said Hillsborough has five full-time certified Spanish teachers teaching kindergarten through fifth grade, at four schools.
Miller said he has not talked to other politicians or educators, but "if we have to negotiate some things, we will."
He is seeking the 11th U.S. congressional seat vacated by Rep. Jim Davis, a Tampa Democrat who is running for governor.
Maria Coady, an assistant professor in the College of Education at the University of Florida, said even though the state has a great resource of Spanish-speaking people, not enough have been encouraged to go into teaching.
The Florida Department of Education hasn't seen the bill or reviewed funding issues, a representative said.[/QUOTE] Start em young and get them used to the wholesale sell out of America and her culture to the third world. It starts with the language and ends where?
2005-11-02 19:58 | User Profile
i think it's a good idea, especially in areas where other languages are more prevalent.
of course, there are other things I think the school systems could be doing with new funding (offer higher salaries to attract better talent, etc.), but this is the more popular political move for Les Miller.
2005-11-02 20:05 | User Profile
[quote=BaconEggCheese]i think it's a good idea, especially in areas where other languages are more prevalent. Perhaps the focus should be on decreasing the areas in the traditionally English-speaking United States in which 'other languages are more prevalent.' I am all in favor of learning other languages, but not as a backdoor means of preparing children for their own dispossession.
2005-11-02 20:10 | User Profile
[quote=Quantrill]Perhaps the focus should be on decreasing the areas in the traditionally English-speaking United States in which 'other languages are more prevalent.' I am all in favor of learning other languages, but not as a backdoor means of preparing children for their own dispossession.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
2005-11-02 21:11 | User Profile
what do you mean "backdoor means of preparing children for their own dispossession"?
are you saying that promoting the spanish-language in schools will result in spanish-speakers displacing our land?
2005-11-02 21:16 | User Profile
[quote=BaconEggCheese]what do you mean "backdoor means of preparing children for their own dispossession"?
are you saying that promoting the spanish-language in schools will result in spanish-speakers displacing our land? No, I'm saying that Spanish-speakers [I]are[/I] displacing us from our land, and forcing all schoolchildren to learn Spanish is acquiescing in that displacement.
2005-11-03 01:19 | User Profile
I strongly agree that the younger the pupil, the easier it is to learn a second language. But why does it have to be Spanish? If there is going to be trouble finding teachers, why not hire those who teach German, Russian, Arabic, French or Chinese. And while you're at that, make sure no one particular language is over-represented.
2005-11-03 15:55 | User Profile
Harumpf. Both English and Spanish students would benefit from being taught Latin, in the traditional manner (an eight year Latin Grammar school), starting at the traditional age of 7, followed by "college" (Latin-immersion speaking environment) at the traditional age of 14.
Did they say whether the Spanish taught would be the language of Cervantes? That's a nice European language. Sir Thomas Elyot suggested that a gentleman should know French, Italian, and Spanish, along with of course Greek and Latin, the usual languages required in College entrance exams -- well, up to the early 20th century.
2005-11-03 17:26 | User Profile
Hell, if you are going to teach them a foreign language, it might as well be [B]Chinese.[/B] By the time these idiots get through they'll need it.
2005-11-03 18:42 | User Profile
[quote=Sertorius]Hell, if you are going to teach them a foreign language, it might as well be [B]Chinese.[/B] By the time these idiots get through they'll need it.
haha. isnt that the truth. China's growth and role as a growing global hegemon is scary.
2005-11-03 19:34 | User Profile
[QUOTE=BaconEggCheese]haha. isnt that the truth. China's growth and role as a growing global hegemon is scary.[/QUOTE]
The bird flu in asia might not be such a bad thing after all.
:smartass:
2005-11-03 21:08 | User Profile
our country getting out s**t together wouldnt be such a bad thing either.