Most of the Howard County school board candidates said they support the expansion of Chinese-language programs in the schools, saying such a move would help students better compete in a global society.
“We have AP [Advanced Placement] Spanish, AP French and AP Latin. Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world. I don?t see why we can?t have AP Chinese, ” said Di Zou, one of 10 Board of Education candidates who attended a forum at Howard High School on Sunday in Ellicott City.
The Association of Chinese Americans-Howard County sponsored the forum. Chinese is being offered as a language course for the first time in the county at Wilde Lake High School. School officials said the course would have been offered sooner had enough students signed up.
Long Reach High School officials have expressed an interest in offering a similar course to improve their relationship with a sister school in Beijing.
“It makes sense from a national competitive perspective,” to include more Chinese-language courses, said Board of Education Chairman Joshua Kaufman, who is seeking re-election to the board.
Patricia Gordon, an incumbent who also is seeking re-election, said foreign language should be offered as early as elementary school.
“Learning languages early makes it possible for students to exercise their minds,” she said.
Ellen Flynn Giles, who has served on numerous curriculum-review committees, said she was encouraged by the Chinese-course offering at Wilde Lake and called for more students to have opportunities to learn the language.
“It should be pushed down to middle school and elementary school,” she said.
Candidate Sandra French said sensitivity training in addition to diverse languages should be offered in the school system.
“We have a more diverse student population, and we should hire more people from international backgrounds,” she said.
Said candidate Frank Aquino: “The world economy requires additional training [to be competitive] and I like the idea of foreign language immersion programs.”
Candidates Dr. Janet Siddiqui, Larry Cohen, Roger Lerner and Allen Dyer also attended the forum.
