I still just can't understand the priorities of the Loudoun County School Board. Rather than cutting luxury items – like offering foreign language to kindergartners – the school board decides to simply not teach our kids at all by furloughing all LCPS employees for two days in November. In other words, two fewer days of instruction for all students in all subjects so that 5 year olds can learn, “Uno, dos, tres.” If I’m missing something in the analysis or the impact, you can’t blame me - the FAQs on the LCPS website focus solely on the furlough's impact on teachers and staff but offer nothing about the impact on students or parents.
Another troubling aspects of this decision is the statement from school board chairman Stevens: “For the record, . . . I oppose furloughs on principle . . . But that's the consequence of having nine independent voices. . .” Need I remind you, Mr. Stevens, that you were one of those voices in voting for the furloughs? You voted to reduce the number of days of instruction in core subjects for all children in Loudoun County, and, in so doing, you voted for the worst possible result.
Should we assume that your principles always yield to the majority? (By the way, you really should read my post below about True Leadership – maybe you could learn something from Nixon).
Llyod, Kindergarten is the BEST time for children to start learning a foreign language -- the synapses for processing phonemes are still adaptable. After 2nd grade, it's pretty much over.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that we are not allowed to hire teachers that have not gone through the Guild. As such, we cannot hire all the wonderful immigrants to teach their native tongues to our children. Instead, we have to hire (at greater cost) someone for whom that is also a foreign language.
That is insanity.
It's all a matter of priorities. A foreign language earlier on would be nice, but it should not come at the expense of core classes
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