It would have seemed to be a perfect fit: an academically ambitious plan for an ambitiously academic city.
But after weeks of debate occasionally tinged with racial overtones, the Palo Alto Unified School District decided early Wednesday against a plan for Mandarin language immersion, citing practical concerns as well as whether the classes would give the small group of students in them an unfair advantage.
The proposal, which was voted down 3 to 2 after a marathon six-hour meeting of the district school board, would have established two classes taught mostly in Mandarin — the world’s most spoken language, used by nearly one billion Chinese — to 40 kindergarten and first-grade students at a local elementary school.
Grace Mah, a second-generation Chinese-American and the founder of Palo Alto Chinese Education, which lobbied for the program, said the vote was a major disappointment.
“I think there’s a number of people who are afraid of change,” said Ms. Mah, a 46-year-old computer engineer and a mother of two, including a third-grader in Palo Alto schools. “I think here’s a number of people who don’t believe in alternative education. And I think there’s a number of people who insist on equity, when in life, it just isn’t.”
Mandarin is offered at one Madison High School – Memorial.
Such a school would be a really smart move, here in Madison as well. For a Westerner, immersion is probably the best way of learning Chinese, especially when the children are still young. And if there are Chinese kids in the class, so much the better.
Immersion may be the best way to learn how to “speak” a language, but it may not necessarily be the most appropriate way to teach young children how to learn a language other than English. Immersion programs have their advantages and disadvantages, not the least of which is the challenge related to the acquisition of grammar, spelling and writing skills in both English and the language taught. And if the notion that “there are Chinese kids in the class” will help in instruction/mentoring of new language learners, well, talk to a foreign language teacher. There are plenty of students in public schools with dual-language speaking skills who don’t know how to read and write.