With my kids out of school this week and my son turning five yesterday, I have to admit to being just a little bit behind on the news (up on it enough, however, to know that my Dodgers are 7 1/2 games in front of the Giants!). As I was playing catch up today, I was interested to read the glowing story on the new Mandarin immersion program as San Francisco Unified’s Star King Elementary.
The new program, which will expand to first grade next year, immersed 26 kindergarteners in the new language, while teaching them standard kindergarten curriculum at the same time.
School Principal Chris Rosenberg told the SF Chronicle, "It was a fantastic year. Did the kids learn Mandarin while mastering the grade-level standards? Yes. It was a big success, a great success."
I can’t help to wonder why educators are still dragging their feet on English-immersion programs for the 1.6 million English Learner students in the state’s public schools. Despite the fact that there are schools that have the same success teaching English and grade-level standards to non-English speaking children, there are many teachers and schools who continue to water down the curriculum, keeping kids from gaining English proficiency.
I see nothing wrong with a public school offering a Mandarin immersion program. But if immersion works so well for teaching Chinese, why are educators fighting the same approach for teaching English?