Reply to What do you think about a Japanese Immersion Public Charter in Ward 7?

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Reply to "What do you think about a Japanese Immersion Public Charter in Ward 7?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here - The whole point of providing articles about the ranking of Japanese as an important language of the future is to show that Japanese is included among those deemed popular in the DC area. Your feedback is welcomed. Language choice for your children is a personal choice. Not everyone wants the same language choices, and it is OK. I personally would love to see Korean and Amharic as language choices too. The more choices, the better. We are living in a world capital. As far as choosing ward 7 as a location, people underestimate those living here in ward 7 or 8. Not all of us struggle with the education landscape other than trying to get to ward 3 to obtain a "good" education for our children only to find out that perhaps a better educational environment may lie east of the river after all. Keep the constructive comments coming. If Japanese does not tickle your fancy, that is OK too. No one is telling you that you must choose it for your children. It is OK... As DEVO says it, it is the freedom of choice![/quote]

OP, I am the PP above who recommended 1-2 Spanish immersion schools in Wards 7/8 before even considering other languages. Your suggestion of Amharic reveals you to be either a troll or a brave/idealistic/eccentric thinker. I am going to assume the latter, because that's what it seems like, and let's keep things positive!

I understand why you and other well-educated families EOTR bristle at the stereotypes, but if you want to pursue education policy responsibly then you cannot ignore the EOTR stats for income, education, children in female-headed households, unemployment (25%+ at one point during the Great Recession?) and life outcomes. And EOTR accounts for 40%+ of students in DC.

There are what, a dozen Spanish immersion schools WOTR, with 60% of the students? And zero EOTR, with 40%. So if we added two Spanish immersion ES options in each of Ward 7 and 8, making four total, whether charter or DCPS, that would only begin to address the inequality of opportunity. Personally I'd implement those four programs before thinking about French or Mandarin, let alone these more obscure/niche languages that are being discussed.

We need to be thinking about what will improve career opportunities and outcomes for kids in those wards. With Spanish, they can compete for jobs in the greater DC area and all over the country. Spanish is a very practical second language in this country. Most of these other languages would only be useful in highly specific international pursuits which are rare even among the children of the very affluent.

Let's face it, and here is where I will probably get flamed, but my intentions are good in saying this: if the child of an affluent family spends 20 years learning Japanese, only to use it when ordering in sushi restaurants and in a 2-year teach-English-abroad jaunt after college, then there is no harm in that. Same thing if an affluent kid goes to medical school on the parents' dime but ends up running a surf shop in San Diego instead. Look, learning any language is a fulfilling, enjoyable and rewarding thing even where it does not help a career, like learning to play a musical instrument or a sport. But for the sake of the average student in Ward 7/8 we should also make sure that any language immersion education, which asks a lot of both students and non-native speaking families, is practical and likely to improve career options down the road.

I'll end by pointing out that it's a lot easier to learn a 3rd language when you learned a 2nd from a young age, so if it turns out that Japanese or Swahili is desired, a student who attended Spanish immersion will be well-positioned to pursue that later in life after the specific needs and desires are known.

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