Teach Mandarin at the Middle School

To Scarsdale10583: My husband, two pre-school children and I moved to Fox Meadow Road recently. Like many parents, we moved to Scarsdale primarily because of the reputation of the education system. We have already observed many things in the curriculum which will really benefit Scarsdale children become highly educated.

However, my husband and I are very concerned about what we have observed thus far in Scarsdale about foreign languages and cultures instruction. First, I have met numerous Scarsdale students between the ages of 9 – 17 years old who have not spoken highly about the Spanish language instruction that they have received. When I have quizzed them by asking them very simple questions such as, 'do you speak Spanish?' they can barely respond. Given that in elementary school, the language is only taught once a week and at times by a person who is not a native speaker, this would explain why the students' speaking ability is so limited. I now understand that there are plans to delay Spanish instruction until the second grade; this will further hinder students' ability to learn to speak the language.

Secondly, quite a number of Scarsdale parents and I would like Mandarin included in the middle school, if not at the elementary level. Mandarin is increasingly offered at top schools globally, and unfortunately, here it only begins in the high school. Moreover, even in the three years that I have lived in Scarsdale, I have seen an increasing number of Mandarin speakers moving here.

I volunteer for Harvard University to interview prospective college applicants. Anecdotally, I may share that of the 16 applicants from Scarsdale, Bronxville, Tuckahoe, New Rochelle, and Yonkers whom I interviewed in the last two years, not a single US born student could speak more than one sentence in a foreign language.

I concentrated in Russian language and Soviet Studies both at college and at graduate school. I can tell you from personal experience that the younger people are when they study a foreign language, the more likely they are to learn to speak it fluently. My husband and I are raising our children bilingually in Spanish and English. Moreover, since they were less than a year old, we have enrolled them in Mandarin instruction at an excellent program, CLP Mandarin, run by two Green Acres women. Even though our children are only 4 and 5, we can see how well, their linguistic abilities are developing. Also, they already ask a lot of questions about China and can make comparisons between Chinese, Latin American, and US cultures.

I have worked in over 30 countries, and I am continually shocked to see how we as Americans produce such few people who are truly fluent in a foreign language. As the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages research demonstrates, studying foreign languages has significant benefits such as improving students' overall academic and cognitive performance, not to mention helping them understand other cultures, in an increasingly complex global landscape.

I urge Scarsdale parents to sign this petition to include Mandarin at the middle school level.

Best Regards,
Mayra Kirkendall-Rodriguez