A new Chinese language course at Wilde Lake High School in Howard County will help students become globally competitive in the world marketplace.
“We have been pushing for this [class] for at least eight years. Chinese people are very persistent,” said Yen Li, interim secretary of the Association of Chinese-Americans, Howard County. “China is a major player in the world?s economy.”
He said the new course offered this year also would receive support from a group of Chinese educators visiting the Howard County Public School System today.
“I?m sure that they will be glad to hear that Chinese is being offered for the first time in Howard County Public School System?s history,” Li said.
Six education officials from Beijing will meet with School Superintendent Sydney Cousin and then visit Worthington Elementary and Long Reach High schools.
The delegation will “want to learn about how we run the school system, how we manage it, our policies and procedures,” Cousin said.
During a visit to China in April 2005, Cousin established a “sister school” relationship between Long Reach High and Beijing No. 22 Secondary School to promote cultural understanding between the Howard school system and the Education Bureau of Dong Cheng District, according to a Howard County Public School news release.
Long Reach High Principal Edmund Evans and Assistant Principal Rose Friss formalized the relationship between the schools when they visited No. 22 Secondary School Principal Gang Ma during the summer.
Next month, two teachers from No. 22 Secondary School will visit Long Reach for two weeks for English training. Two English teachers from Long Reach also will travel to Beijing to teach English for three weeks.
Five students from No. 22 Secondary School will study at Long Reach in October.
Asians comprise 13 percent of the school system?s nearly 48,000 students, according to the school system?s profile.
