California: School bill requires second language (fluency)

San Jose Mercury News ^ | 14 March 2003

[CounterCounterCulture]

California students would be required to master a second language before graduating from high school under a bill introduced Thursday in the state Legislature.

The bill is part of an ambitious proposal to restructure California's education bureaucracy, and set rigorous academic goals for students and higher standards for teachers.

[CounterCounterCulture]

Cool! One more thing the public education system will fail at.

From the same people that fought English immersion of immigrant children.

[bybybill]

Why can`t they demand high school grads speak two languages? Cause California is broke after paying for all your other dumb ideas.

Is it legal that California grads must speak English?

[Joe Hadenuf]

"They do it in Europe. They do it in Asia.

And your point is? Both those regions of the world suck, and many of them are trying to get here, were most still speak only English......

Teach all the French Japanese. I would pay to see that.....

[Jay D. Dyson]

California students would be required to master a second language before graduating from high school under a bill introduced Thursday in the state Legislature.

The bill is part of an ambitious proposal to restructure California's education bureaucracy, and set rigorous academic goals for students and higher standards for teachers.

Neat. I hope for their sake that they don't use this as some thinly-veiled PC-sired requirement to force schoolkids to learn Spanish (thus enabling the flood of illegals to avoid assimilating into the American mainstream).

Apart from that...heck, I'm all for it. I'll personally encourage my kids to learn the second language I'm fluent in: American Sign Language.

-Jay

[ET(end tyranny)]

Any guesses as to which second language they will make them learm????

Wouldn't be spanish would it??? Maybe it will be the minority language of ENGLISH!

[Joe Hadenuf]

- --- .... . .-.. . .-- .. - .... - .... . --

[FairOpinion]

I think they should make sure that graduating students are proficient in ENGLISH and MATH first, and know some history and geography, before expanding the curriculum.

[CyberAnt]

What this is - is only an attempt by the NEA to get BILINGUAL education back into the school system. The liberals need this, because otherwise the hispanic kids will learn to read and write English and be able to get jobs and they won't need the dems handouts.

Parents - you must stop this !!!

[Myrddin]

California can't even get the basics down. The bilingual requirement caters to the kids who grow up in a Spanish speaking household and an English speaking neighborhood. The Vietnamese community in San Diego tends to ensure a continued bilingual capability as well. Those native born Americans who speak only English need to have a shot at a second language in elementary school if they are going to succeed. Waiting until junior high or high school is often too late to achieve native fluency.

[lonewacko_dot_com]

I posted more on this here: http://lonewacko.com/blog/archives/000347.html#000347

Any other information on Vasconcellos or Karnette would be appreciated.

[Myrddin]

They do it in Europe. They do it in Asia. I don't know why we can't do it,'' said Sen. Betty Karnette, D-Long Beach.

In Europe, you can practice multiple languages with the population at large. Belgium has French, German, Dutch, Flemish and English spoken over most of the country. A second language is a "use it or lose it" facility. There isn't much opportunity to "use it" in the U.S. I've had a devil of a time learning Welsh. Very few speakers in the U.S.

Betty Karnette is simply illiterate on the topic.

[Redcloak]

TlhIngan Hol bIghoj!

[kancel]

>>California students would be required to master a second language before graduating from high school under a bill introduced Thursday in the state Legislature. <<


Could English please be one of those two languages. I swear I am going to start asking for native English speakers every time some telemarketer weenie calls me- or any time I have to deal with someones Customer Service Dept.

[tommix2]

You are right. The problem for American children is Which foreign language shall I study? When A Japanese child studies english, he knows he is studying a language that will be useful to him for the rest of his life. I have worked in many different countries. My Spanish did not do me any good in Japan. It was not until after thirty years that I was assigned to a Spanish speaking country.

[xm177e2]

The bill is part of an ambitious proposal to restructure California's education bureaucracy, and set rigorous academic goals for students and higher standards for teachers.

BS the bill is to prepare us for a Spanish-speaking state

[Clovis_Skeptic]

I hope one of the required languages is english!

[Sci Fi Guy]

On the surface it's not a bad idea, but you really have to start in elementary school. The biggest problem is that the Schools are controlled by the extremely political unions. And they never let a child's education get in the way of their political agenda. If they are backing this, then, it's because they think it will hurt republicans.

[FITZ]

"The more languages you learn, the more powerful you become.''

That's actually a very big lie --even though I believe it is good to learn two or more languages. America became the most powervul wealthy nation when Americans were criticized for not being willing to learn other languages. Countries that have many bilingual people aren't more successful. Many people already speak partly in Spanish, partly in English and they aren't the highest paid or most powerful people ----many can only get social worker jobs.

[Uncle Hal]

Hell the students cannot master one language, how are they going to master two. These liberals amaze me.