Foreign Language
I have been thinking a lot about foreign languages lately.
We began teaching language in the Lower School six years ago. After considering the earlier introduction to language for a while, we began offering French to students in grades one through six.
A year later, we had our first contact with the Teacher Exchange Program in China and sponsored our first teacher from China. Since then we have offered Mandarin to students in the PreK and several grades beyond. This year we have Mandarin in PreK through third grade and French in grades four through six. What began as an informal program is now developing into a genuine curriculum that includes books and materials.
We are now thinking about the long-range implications of foreign language teaching at Garden School, meditating on what our long-term plan is going to be. Should Mandarin become the third language of grades four through six over the next few years? Should we offer Manadarin, French, and Spanish in the Upper School, beginning with grade seven? We have a lot of thinking to do in this area, but this is precisely the kind of educational issue that excites us the most.