Mandarin Language Program at Districts 67 & 115 Examined

While we are in the mood of feeling betrayed by former
Superintendent puppeteer Harry Griffith and his D 115 and D 67 Boards of
Education puppets, why not take a closer look at their cherished (not so) Total
Immersion Mandarin Programs. Calling to mind the famous trips to China by the
Superintendent and his pliant BOE, for the purpose of evaluation a Mandarin
program and then interviewing prospective instructors, is a reminder of just
how flawed the concept and how meaningless the outcome has been. In retrospect,
a trip to Michigan State University, the resource now in use to frame the
program and recruit teachers, would have saved a great deal of time,
embarrassment and thousands of dollars. But of course a trip to East Lansing MI
is not a glamorous as one to Beijing.

To be clear, this program is not total immersion, it is
instruction in Mandarin, nothing else. Total immersion means just that; you
learn everything in Mandarin, except English. It is the only language students
will hear, read or speak during the school day.

Let’s start with the question, why Mandarin in the first
place? There can only be three possible answers;  

1. 
   The program will be a great intellectual
   challenge,
2. 
   The remote possibility that the language will be
   useful someday,
3. 
   Bragging rights, for the District’s and the
   parents.

Arguably, Mandarin is a significant challenge, even for K-8
students so it fits the intellectual challenge argument. But at what cost?
Surely that same effort spent on such basics as English, history, math, science,
the arts and music will have a far more durable impact in the students future
social, intellectual and occupational world than Mandarin. More about that
later.

Studying and learning Mandarin in Lake Forest is a fool’s
errand. First and foremost, language is a, “use it or lose it” proposition. So,
where will our Mandarin speakers use this new found skill? There are only a few
Chinese restaurants around, laundries are run by Koreans, and Chinatown is not
so convenient. So, where are these Mandarin students going to use and hone
their language? Second, Mandarin is not an important language outside China.
Furthermore, most international business in China, similar to other nations, is
conducted in English. The conventional argument is that China is emerging as
possibly the most powerful nation on the planet, therefore it follows that
Mandarin will become the world’s business language of choice. We have heard
similar advancements for Russian during the Cold War, Japanese during the 70’s
and 80’s, and now Mandarin. Not to worry, English will remain the dominate international
business and information technology language for the predictable future and
Mandarin, like French, will have a scarce following.

A far better choice for intensive second language development
is Spanish. Our country is rapidly becoming a Brown one with massive
immigration of Latino’s and Hispanics already here, and they have brought their
language with them. Having fluency in Spanish will offer wonderful business and
social opportunities for Lake Forest and Lake Bluff students. Businesses in
this area, and many other parts of America, are heavily populated with Spanish
speaking owners and employees consequently, effectively communicating in their
language brings sizable advantages. And of course, opportunities to use Spanish
in Chicagoland abound. Spanish does not have the elitist appeal of Mandarin,
but it offers undeniably broader and more practical use, applications and
advantages, now and for the future.   

Then there are the bragging rights. At cocktail and dinner
parties in the Forest and the Bluff, parents of Mandarin students can claim
superiority for having the vision of insisting on the program for the schools
and their progeny. The district too, can boast to parents and peer districts of
their wisdom and forward thinking of the Mandarin program. With such
administrative visionaries in charge, how can you go wrong with our local
schools? It is a natural.

When earlier suggesting the value of an alternative use of
instructive time for some basics, we should especially value deep knowledge of
our English language, specifically; vocabulary, construction, structure,
phraseology, and grammar. Having spent over 30 years in international business,
living abroad and doing business in scores of countries and on most all
continents, I found two vital pieces of knowledge necessary to be effective,
the English language and local culture. These trumped a second or third
language, simply because, one cannot be fluid in all the languages spoken
throughout world. It is for this reason International business language is
universally English, but that is deceiving. Proper English, not just any old English,
filled with slang, idioms, and colloquialisms that render it incomprehensible
and un–translatable to those who learned English as a second or third language,
rather the academic version. The international person with whom one may be
communicating in the written or spoken word, has learned English as it was
intended, not the way we use it today.  Incidentally,
have you seen and heard the way our high school and college graduates use the
English language today? In a word, horrifying! Could we therefore conclude, an
educated and fully prepared High School graduate is better described as one
with full knowledge of the English language, rather one claiming a perfunctory
knowledge of Mandarin?     

Is it not time for D 67 & 115 to revisit the Mandarin
program? Is it providing any value of substance to the complete education of
our students? Is the program benefiting only a fraction of the student body
while consuming scarce resources that could be put to better use? Do we have a
truly robust English language program? How can a Spanish language program, and
for that matter, English, be elevated to the status of the Mandarin program to
satisfy our elitist’s audience? The value a new administration and newly
constituted Boards of Education is the freedom to reevaluate many programs,
especially those cherished by their predecessors. Mandarin is a great place to
start, or perhaps finish.

Al Boese                                                                                                                                                                                                       Lake Bluff, IL