Committee of 100 Key in Building Support for Mandarin Programs
November 2008 | By Jane Leung Larson
In no small part due to the dedication and work of Los Angeles–area C-100 members, the Los Angeles Board of Education adopted the Mandarin, Spanish, and Other World Languages in the Schools Initiative on October 28. The Committee of 100, led by C-100 Vice Chair Stewart Kwoh, convened a diverse group of educators to form the Mandarin in the Schools Committee, which developed the resolution with Yolie Flores Aguilar, Board of Education Vice President, and shepherded it through to ultimate passage.
This ambitious resolution will greatly expand the opportunities for the study of Mandarin in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). With 700,000 students, LAUSD is the second largest school district in the country.
Harry Haskell, LAUSD Director of World Languages and Cultures, said, “The Committee of 100 provided an invaluable role in the conception and support of the resolution. It was a privilege to work with such an accomplished group of individuals who understand the challenges of globalization and the need to increase the foreign language skills and cultural awareness of our students. We expect the Committee to play a major role in recruiting new Mandarin teachers to the district as well as provide overall support in implementing the initiative.”
The goal is that all students would have the chance to study a language other than English beginning in elementary school and continuing for six to eight years so that they can become highly proficient in a second language. Dual language or two-way immersion programs that mix English and Mandarin speakers in the same classroom will be offered along with a full sequence of traditional language classes in Mandarin, from pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12. Spanish/English dual language programs as well as classes in Arabic, Russian, and Hindi are also part of the languages initiative. Read the full resolution here. http://www.committee100.org/initiatives/education/resolution.pdf
Implementing the resolution will be an even greater challenge. One of the first tasks is to recruit more qualified Mandarin teachers, who are needed immediately. Teachers without a teaching credential or certificate can still apply if they meet certain requirements. The online application can be found at http://www.teachinla.com/
Leslie Schilling, who chairs the C-100 Education Initiative, said that Kwoh was “the driving force” behind the Mandarin the Schools Committee, which included Committee members Lily Chen, Charlie Sie, and Herman Li, and financial backing by Vivine and Roger Wang. Key to the success of the Mandarin in the Schools Committee was participation by LAUSD administrators, the heads of two charter schools that teach Mandarin, and representatives from the Southern California Chinese Schools Association, Asia Society, UCLA’s Confucius Institute, and Cal State Long Beach and Cal State LA.
An engaging series of videos on the value of learning Mandarin was produced by the Mandarin in the Schools Committee, with sponsorship by the C-100 Education Initiative. Sie was interviewed in one segment, “Learning Chinese: Why and How.” View it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q6-LEvdNJc Sie speaks about how he, Chen, and the C-100 Education Initiative helped the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District implement a Mandarin language program several years ago. Today its enrollment of 1,582 students surpasses the number of students currently in Mandarin classes in LAUSD.
Describing the October 28 hearing before the Board of Education, Susan Jain of the UCLA Confucius Institute said that “Stewart’s remarks to the Board set the stage beautifully” for presentation of the resolution. “The most powerful figures to address the Board however, were the kids.” Among them were “the first grader (a recent immigrant from China), enrolled in the Mandarin immersion program at City Terrace [School], who addressed the Board in newly-acquired English [and] his classmate, a Latina, who spoke in Mandarin. Their simple words showed that language learning was not just a skill, but was also a way to make a child feel at home or spark a global vision.”
Comments