<When I was on the long-range planning committee for my school district, all of us (volunteers from the community -- some parents, some business people who weren't parents, some teachers) believed that one of the outcomes to be required of our students upon graduation from high school should be to be able to carry on brief polite conversations in a language that was not English. You know: "My name is..." "Where is the airport?" "The mountains are very beautiful." "Please show me the red necklace." "Thank you for your help. You are very kind." Like that. And, of course, to be able to understand the replies and ask follow-up questions if necessary.

The right-wingers on the board shot it down. It's unAmerican to have to learn a language that's not English. The Constitution is written in English. The Gettysburg Address is written in English. The Bible is written in English. So you see, when someone talks about eliminating a language program, my ears are precalibrated to this frequency.



Good God, where do you live? I came from an area of the Midwest where the only people who had color or an accent were foreign exchange students, and even there a foreign language class was REQUIRED to graduate.

For the record, the Bible was written in Hebrew and Aramaic, among others, and it was only in our recent history that one could be presumed to be an educated person without knowing at least one foreign language, classical or otherwise.

We need to try to eventually remove our schools from government control and return them to the private sector. One of the best results of this is that our childrens' educations will no longer be held hostage to stupid political agendas, either left-wing or right-wing.