Stasis: Budget cuts for language departmentsSpecial topics:
- People's responses to accents
- Part: Language learning / Whole: Education
- Advantageous
- Conjugates (literally)
- Connecting with the world
A moan sounded from the audience of teachers. Well, those on the left side of the room: the art and language teachers.
"I know, I know," the board director said. But no amount of I know's could cure Madame Lachance's sadness and frustration. Time to speak for them, these left-side-of-the-roomers. Especially herself and Señora Hernandez. Especially herself.
"I'd like to say somesing."
Everyone squeaked their little metal desks to turn and look at her. Maybe it would be best to ditch the French accent, she decided. These people might be turned off by her pursed-lip vowels and delicate fricative r's, even without knowing it. Or with knowing it...she thought pointedly of bespectacled Mr. Simmons, the calculus professor. She cleared her throat and stood.
"I know what you're going to say, John," she addressed the director, who was now heaving himself into a little desk with a furrowed but resigned brow. "I know that we're competing with the world and that the world cares about math and science. And those subjects are so important! But you must understand that the students need all parts of an education. Including the arts." She gestured toward the choir director and the painting teacher. Then she put a hand against her own chest. "Including languages. These subjects will help them in the long run. And isn't that what we want?"
Nods bobbed up and down the rows of professors. Madame Lachance went on.
"Even just scratching the surface of a new language can help a student. It can help them learn more about their native language." She turned to face the English department chair. "Many English words, for example, come from French, or from the same Latin roots as French. Look at just one example: the verb appeler. It means "to call," like in the sense of the English word "appellation." These words are conjugates--they have a common background, and thus, both suggest the same meaning of name. Wouldn't that help your kids learn that vocabulary word?" she asked the English teacher.
More nodding.
"Learning French isn't just about learning French. It's about broadening your world and finding connections. We and the district should consider that."
Madame Lachance sat down, and the director stayed in his desk, nodding his head in thought.
You had a very interesting use of bold text, font size, and bullet points in your post. That is probably not what I am supposed to be focused my comment on, but your methods did allow me to focus better on important topics, much like the French teacher's demonstration did with the school board. In a way, your methods enabled the post to "clear her throat and st(and)." I forgot how to correctly do the formatting for changing a quote, but you get my drift. Also, I couldn't help but think about our recent reading of Cicero's De Oratore as I went through your post, as the narration was interesting. This was probably the intention, but it was nice having the freedom as a reader to connect with the characters and form my own thoughts based on the conflicts presented in the story, rather than having the issues force-fed to me. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post, even though I generally side with the more mathematical side of things you did a great job of explaining why the arts and languages are important to a student's education. I definitely see the stasis that arises in the education system.
ReplyDeleteI love your post! Part of it is because I agree wholly with your topic (monolinguism is the 21st century's form of illiteracy!), but I found it a breath of fresh air and a welcome change of pace from most other blog posts. You turned it into a story and used font size in order to show your emphasis, topics of invention, and emotion within the likely conversation. Very nice job! :D
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