Animal02 wrote:
> "Wayne" wrote in message
> news:1qNrj.2424$ip3.1614@trnddc07...
>> "Cardinal Chunder" wrote in message
>> news:fomqnn02o70@news5.newsguy.com...
>>> Speeders & Drunk Drivers are MURDERERS wrote:
>>>> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23039327
>>>>
>>>> Student, Mother Protest Mandatory Spanish Class
>>>>
>>>> KXAS-TV
>>>> updated 6:23 a.m. MT, Thurs., Feb. 7, 2008
>>>>
>>>> G.VINE, Texas - A mother in the G.vine-Colleyville school district
>>>> said she is refusing to let her daughter attend mandatory Spanish class
>>>> because she doesn't think her daughter should be forced to learn the
>>>> language. "They said sorry you're gonna have to learn Spanish," said
>>>> Ashley Allison a fifth-grader at G.vine-Colleyville's Timberline
>>>> Elementary School. "I was just stunned because I couldn't believe they'd
>>>> actually make me do something like that."
>>> Oh no, the horror! Imagine being forced to learn stuff like a foreign
>>> language.
>> It is great to be able to speak a foreign language. However, much of the
>> US strength depends upon a common language across all the states.
>> Currently we waste millions of dollars to provide content in both english
>> and spanish (everything from school textbooks to election materials to
>> Home Depot signs). That money could be much better used by educating the
>> spanish speaking elementary students to speak english. The money used to
>> teach an english speaking student to communicate in spanish is a waste of
>> money that could very well be used in core subjects, such as math. The
>> language studies should come after a student is competent in the
>> fundamentals, or if the student is good enough to work in language studies
>> in addition.
>>
>>
>
> You are an idiot. The early that an language is introduced, the easier it
> is to learn, Learning spanish at an early age, being a latin based
> language, will make learning all other latin based languages easier. It
> will also benefit learnign english as well
I personally believe that it's important to teach English from the cradle
onwards, regardless of the language the parents speak. Furthermore, constant
exposure and some use of American English Sign Language should be mandatory,
as it is both a true language and is entirely non-verbal. This helps to
establish semantic skills on both sides of the brain, which may contribute
to building both the concepts of semantics and grammar on the verbal side of
the brain, and the essentials of the grammar that is mathematics on the
other side of the brain. Furthermore, this will further embrace the Deaf
into mainstream culture, and expand and preserve their own culture to the
Hearing.
Further, some exposure to a non-Romance language, such as Mandarin, a
Slavic, or Germanic language is advisable. But it should be elective at the
earliest years of school to have intensive study of Latin, and non-intensive
exposure should be mandatory through all grade levels.
If someone is judged to be a very competent user of written Latin, they
should in middle school or thereafter, be encouraged to comparatively study
_all_ Romance languages.
Remember, Italians, French, and Spanish will all understand most basic Latin
statements, such as "de gustibus, non disputandem".
--
The incapacity of a weak and distracted government may
often assume the appearance, and produce the effects,
of a treasonable correspondence with the public enemy.
--Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" |