Some see Mandarin immersion programs as “elitist”

A letter to the Editor published in the Gazebo News in Lake Forest, Ill.

Editor’s note: This Reader Forum article was submitted by Al Boese of Lake Bluff. Reader Forum articles represent the writers’ opinions and not necessarily those of GazeboNews. We encourage you to comment on this article, but please include your full name per the GazeboNews comments policy.

By Al Boese of Lake Bluff

Our dear Harry Griffith, the gift that keeps on giving. And you thought, when he is gone, expensive as the experiment was, he would be gone. Think again. The cherished and embraced D 67 Mandarin Immersion Program is not only going to cost more thanks to the absence of state Funding, what you didn’t hear the State of Illinois is broke, it is becoming a divisive force among parents. The haves (Mandarin Students) are taking from the have not’s (non-Mandarin students). We are having a sort of class warfare, again, the haves and have not’s, owing to funding issues and the non-Mandarin students becoming second class students. From the outset, this was not about Mandarin, it was about elitism and bragging rights, as though there was not enough of that going on in both D67 & 115, exacerbated by Sir Harry and his circle of favorites.

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