Why do US schools promote foreign languages without ever any education in native languages …

[Anonymous]

… like Hawaiian or Navajo or any number of other native languages? You’d think in the present day, we’d have children learn some at some point in their educational career.

[Anonymous]

These languages are not widely spoken. Spanish is. Spanish is also, arguably a native language of the US as when the US was formed and expanded it took over Spanish territories.

[Anonymous]

Navaho is remarkably difficult to learn...
Spanish is the second most spoken language in the US
The US language education is third rate anyway, kids should start learning languages in elementary school

[Anonymous]

Navajo is super hard, and you'd need teachers which is pretty hard to do depending on the state. But I actually think it'd be an amazing initiative, perhaps at the state level, teaching native languages of the area.

[Anonymous]

There are Navajo language classes around the Navajo reservation. Most Americans will never encounter a member of the Navajo tribe. In fact, most Americans think Native Americans are dead. (I grew up near a number of reservations.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:… like Hawaiian or Navajo or any number of other native languages? You’d think in the present day, we’d have children learn some at some point in their educational career.

Are you an idiot? So if you learn Navajo or Hawaiian, where are you going that will utilize your language fluency in these dialects?

For the simple reason of utilization, most places choose the most used languages to impart.

[Anonymous]

Learning a language is about cultured and brain development. I’m not saying native language instead of foreign languages. I’m saying they should learn them maybe like for a year like 4th grade in addition to foreign languages. Learning a language is not always about fluency. In fact, immersion which my kids participated in, is NOT about language acquisition. It is about brain development, especially K-6, and even more so, if it is one way immersion. Acquisition can be a happy accident.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Navaho is remarkably difficult to learn...
Spanish is the second most spoken language in the US
The US language education is third rate anyway, kids should start learning languages in elementary school

Sorry, Spaniards were colonialists. Spanish is not a Native American language. Stop trying to marginalize their minority status more than it already is. It is an ugly look.

[Anonymous]

We can come up with $$$ to study the language of young white men today, but not the languages of people we conquered and marginalize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These languages are not widely spoken. Spanish is. Spanish is also, arguably a native language of the US as when the US was formed and expanded it took over Spanish territories.

Florida, Texas, most of the Southwest (New Mexico, Arizona, large swaths of California), Puerto Rico, and others were taken from either Mexico or Spain via war. Many people already living there were descended from Spanish ancestors.

Though by this logic we also should count Dutch (New Netherlands), Swedish (New Sweden), and French (the Louisiana Purchase, even if that was from Spain) as "native" languages.

[Anonymous]

For the same reason that France doesn't teach Brittany Gaelic, Occitan or Basque to its schoolchildren.

The whole point of organized school is to prepare children for contributing to the economy, which includes building diplomatic and trading ties with other countries. This isn't about reviving minority languages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the same reason that France doesn't teach Brittany Gaelic, Occitan or Basque to its schoolchildren.

The whole point of organized school is to prepare children for contributing to the economy, which includes building diplomatic and trading ties with other countries. This isn't about reviving minority languages.

So Native Americans who have their own Nation(s) must continue to be subservient and allow their Nation(s) to perish.

[Anonymous]

Vast majority of kids in US are failing to reach grade level proficiency in math and reading. Learning Navajo is not high on list of priorities

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the same reason that France doesn't teach Brittany Gaelic, Occitan or Basque to its schoolchildren.

The whole point of organized school is to prepare children for contributing to the economy, which includes building diplomatic and trading ties with other countries. This isn't about reviving minority languages.

So Native Americans who have their own Nation(s) must continue to be subservient and allow their Nation(s) to perish.

what? no. no one is saying that. but how likely is it to get teachers of a dying language into 50 states? realllll unlikely. Let the navajo speakers teach the navajo children, let's not take their skilled language speakers/teachers for white children. Let's let them keep their skills for their community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the same reason that France doesn't teach Brittany Gaelic, Occitan or Basque to its schoolchildren.

The whole point of organized school is to prepare children for contributing to the economy, which includes building diplomatic and trading ties with other countries. This isn't about reviving minority languages.

So Native Americans who have their own Nation(s) must continue to be subservient and allow their Nation(s) to perish.

You can conclude what you wish, PP, but economic realities are harsh.