How America Is Failing Its Children by not Teaching Foreign Language
Why are parents in this country so willing to accept a substandard education for their kids?
There’s a very good reason most countries in the world teach one or more foreign languages from the first day of public education. It’s because learning a foreign language helps you master your native language.
Learning a foreign language gives you a reason to memorize the different parts of speech. You need to know what a verb is. You need to know what a preposition is. You need to know the difference between a direct object and an indirect object.
The study of foreign language teaches you the terminology of language.
Without the objective of learning a foreign language, there’s no incentive to learn these terms. To be honest, if you’re not going to learn a foreign language, you really don’t need them. We learn out of necessity. We’re not interested in learning how to put shoes on a horse because it’s not something we’ll need to know.
The best way to succeed as an educator is to make your students understand why knowledge is necessary. America’s rejection of foreign language is problematic. It feels as if our educational system is more interested in providing our kids with a…
