[My own op ed – the man has a point. But I figure it’s easier to learn Chinese as a little kid and then pick up Spanish in high school than the other way around – Beth]

Op-Ed Columnist

Primero Hay Que Aprender Español. Ranhou Zai Xue Zhongwen.

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Published: December 29, 2010

Damon Winter/The New York Times

Nicholas D. Kristof

On the Ground

Nicholas Kristof addresses reader feedback and posts short takes from his travels.

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Answer: an American.

Yet these days, we’re seeing Americans engaged in a headlong and ambitious rush to learn Chinese — or, more precisely, to get their kids to learn Chinese. Everywhere I turn, people are asking me the best way for their children to learn Chinese.

Partly that’s because Chinese classes have replaced violin classes as the latest in competitive parenting, and partly because my wife and I speak Chinese and I have tortured our three kids by trying to raise them bilingual. Chinese is still far less common in schools or universities than Spanish or French, but it is surging and has the “cool factor” behind it — so public and private schools alike are hastening to add Chinese to the curriculum.

In New York City alone, about 80 schools offer Chinese, with some programs beginning in kindergarten. And let’s be frank: If your child hasn’t started Mandarin classes by third grade, he or she will never amount to anything.

Just kidding. In fact, I think the rush to Chinese is missing something closer to home: the paramount importance for our children of learning Spanish.

Read more here.

By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER

Weighing the public education options for his two children, El Cerrito doctor Michael Jugo felt the East Bay fell short. He wanted them to have an advantage he didn’t have growing up: learning Chinese at school.

“The writing was on the wall that there wasn’t going to be an option for us without moving or paying private tuition,” says Mr. Jugo, 38 years old, who learned Mandarin after college and speaks it at home with his kids, ages 2 and 5, and wife, who is Chinese-American.

Or so he thought. Instead, Mr. Jugo chose an even more difficult path—creating a Chinese-language public charter school in his own county.

After a year of planning, Mr. Jugo and a group of four other families in November received unanimous approval from Alameda County to launch a Mandarin Chinese immersion charter school, the first of its kind in the state.

The Yu Ming Charter School—the name roughly translates as “Nurturing Tomorrow”—is now hunting for a principal and hopes to begin classes in the fall for about 100 kindergarten and first-grade students, expanding over time to include up to the eighth grade. So far, about 120 families have expressed interest or attended meetings for the school.

Read more here.

From Sampan, New England’s Chinese newsletter.

Diverse supporters of Mandarin immersion school unite

by Staff Writer on December 17, 2010

Lisa Du Breuil and Mary Xiaohui Breuil -a Caucasian mother and her five-year-old Chinese-born daughter – arrived early and grabbed front row seats at a public hearing held at Boston City Hall on December 7.  They signed up to speak in support of the proposed Boston Chinese Immersion Charter School (BCICS) during the hearing.  The Du Breuils were among the some sixty attendees who were dressed in bright-red T-shirts.

It was a full house on the hearing floor.  Held by members of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Second Education (DESE), the hearing was to solicit public comment on 14 of the 23 proposed charter schools that are in final stages of review.  Dozens of individuals spoke, either in support or in opposition of a particular proposed charter school, took turns to speak before the state panel.  This hearing was one of the eight to provide feedback to DESE.

“When we adopted our daughter Mary Xiaohui, who was 18 months old at the time, we made a solemn promise to the Chinese government to teach her about China and to help her grow up to be proud of being Chinese. We take that promise very seriously. My husband and I are white, so we need help keeping that promise, and there are thousands of other families in the Greater Boston area just like us,” Du Breuil said in her testimony before the DESE officials.

Read more here.

D220 approves Chinese classes

By Carolyn Rusin TribLocal reporter Yesterday at 12:56 p.m.

Barrington School District 220 will offer a Mandarin Chinese immersion program for tots through teens next fall, now that the board of education has voted to accept a $1.5 million federal matching grant for the program for five years.

School board members had been mulling over whether to take on the financial obligation posed by the grant, which was awarded in the summer. They voted 6-1 to accept it at a meeting Tuesday night.

The district  will become the only one in the state to offer Chinese immersion from kindergarten through high school, said Todd Bowen, chairman of the  world language department, who secured the grant from the U.S. Department Education. Chinese already was offered in middle school and high school and now will be extended to the elementary grades.

read more here.

from the Barrington Patch

Board of Education Accepts Chinese Immersion Grant

Barrington 220 School District is the only district in the state of Illinois, and one of 22 in the entire country to be awarded the $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education Foreign Language Assistance program in 2010.

World Languages Department Chairman Todd Bowen said the elementary Chinese immersion program is a unique opportunity for students to develop professional competence in an Asian language. _

The new program will be introduced in January 2011 as a voluntary after school enrichment class for kindergarteners in the district.  Barbara B. Rose Elementary School will be the first to have the full immersion program in place for kindergarten and first-grade classes during the 2011-2012 school year. Chinese language immersion at the elementary level will feed into the existing 6-12 program at the district.

Article here.

And they’re looking for a principal….

YU MING CHARTER SCHOOL WAS UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED. Now, we are searching for a founding principal.

Overview
New Mandarin immersion public charter school in the San Francisco Bay Area seeks an experienced and entrepreneurial leader to head an academically rigorous K-8 program that graduates students who are bilingual, biliterate and bicultural. Yu Ming Charter School was unanimously approved by the Alameda County Office (ACOE) Board of Education and will open in Fall 2011 with students in grades K-1.

Job Responsibilities
The Founding Principal will design and lead all aspects of the school’s education program and operations:
Provide instructional leadership: select curriculum, assessments, and instructional practices to meet the school’s education goals; provide training and coaching to teachers; guide implementation of the education design.
Select, develop, and direct staff, including educators and administrative support.
Manage all resources of the school: maintain a balanced budget; plan for future needs.
Develop a vibrant, collaborative school community.
Oversee daily operations of the school: ensure school is fully enrolled and fully staffed; maintain safe, secure, and well-functioning facility; establish daily schedule and school year calendar; comply with federal, state and ACOE standards, regulations and documentation requirements.
Work closely with Board of Directors to govern the school responsibly.

Qualifications
Bilingual and bi-literate in both Mandarin Chinese and English
Proven track record in achieving academic results
Demonstrated commitment to fostering a dynamic and academically rigorous education program
Expertise in curriculum development and program design related to dual-immersion and Mandarin language development
Knowledge of formative assessment of student progress and use of data to inform classroom practice
Ability to attract, select, and develop highly effective teachers
Experience with school finance and operations, including knowledge of Education Code
Entrepreneurial passion; the ability to thrive in the excitement and ambiguity of a start-up environment
Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Superb interpersonal skills; ability to work collaboratively with individuals from a variety of backgrounds
Excellent organizational, time management, and multi-tasking skills
Legal authorization to work in the United States

Minimum educational level: Bachelor’s degree; Masters or Ph.D. in relevant area preferred

Experience preferred
4+ years professional teaching experience, preferably in immersion or foreign language
1+ years professional experience as a school administrator or entrepreneurial leader

Compensation and Benefits: Salary commensurate with experience. Comprehensive benefits package offered for employee and dependents.

Contact: Please submit a cover letter and resume to jobs@yumingschool.org by December 24, 2010.

__._,_.___

From the Vancouver Sun in British Columbia, Canada.

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B.C. needs more Mandarin immersion classes, prof says

By Graeme Wood, With A File From Janet Steffenhagen, Special To The Sun

If B.C. truly wants to be a “gateway” for business with China, it will have to invest in more Chinese-language classes from kindergarten to university, says the head of the department of Asian studies at the University of B.C.

“We live in a province that is heavily oriented toward Asia in business ties, but the reality on the ground in terms of investments, so citizens of B.C. know something about Asia, is essentially a generation behind,” Ross King said.

King said B.C. should have a robust immersion program in Mandarin — a “pipeline” from kindergarten to university — to keep pace with developing cultural and business ties with China.

He said B.C. has done well over the last decade to build the “hardware” for business with China such as expanding port facilities, but has done nothing to develop its “software,” such as training British Columbians who can work proficiently in both Mandarin and English.

The education ministry said recently it is up to individual school boards to build their own Chinese immersion programs. King said this policy has to change.

“It’s fairly laissez-faire from the bottom up, but you need it from the top down as well,” he said.

There are only a handful of schools in Metro Vancouver that offer Mandarin classes to elementary school children but only one — Walton elementary in Coquitlam — is an immersion-style program, and it is offered only in kindergarten and Grade 1.

Read more here.