Another Bad Idea

In 1919, the State of Nebraska passed a law requiring that all students be taught in English. Only once the student entered the Ninth Grade would students be allowed to study foreign languages. The case was thrown out in the Supreme Court's 1923 decision in Meyer v. Nebraska.

At the other end of the spectrum, Florida has come up with this idea:

The youngest students in Southwest Florida's public schools could soon be saying "hola" to a new language. A Proposal in Tallahassee to make Spanish class mandatory is causing a big stir in schools throughout Southwest Florida.

The state's top democrat supports a plan to make Spanish classes mandatory for all students in kindergarten through second grades.

The bill was proposed this month, and it's already making waves in Florida schools.

Spanish teacher George Muentes says, "I frankly believe, the earlier you teach someone, the better it is."

The law would make Spanish a core class like math and science, it would also force school officials to shuffle an already crowded schedule.

Don't get me wrong. I support and encourage young students to be taught foreign languages. The study of foreign languages increases over all educational ability, and actually increases competence and understanding of English. However, there are a couple of reasons why this is not a good idea.

• How is the system going to pay for it? Would this proposal require more materials? More teachers?
• What about other core classes? How does this impact other programs such as art, music, and phys ed?
• The implication of it all: is the legislator implying that all Floridians should be forced to speak Spanish because of the influx of Spanish-speaking immigrants who have chosen not to speak English?

The idea is just not well thought out. The teaching of languages is good, but not as a requirement and certainly not for every student. And why should each student be forced to study Spanish? I studied German and Russian and I turned out OK.

And another thing; we should not be mandating the study of foreign languages until we are sure that these students can fluently speak, read, and write English first.