Voyager
KENT PLACE SCHOOL
Voyager WINTER 2008
World Languages, Globally Speaking By Gayle Allen, Director of Studies and Assistant Head
“A different language is a different vision of life.” – Federico Fellini, Italian film director
The Language of Global Citizenship Preparing students to engage as citizens of the world might seem like a daunting task. Encouraging them to examine their own language and culture more deeply as part of this process might seem equally challenging. Fortunately, Kent Place School’s World Language program and re-accreditation process, one that takes place every seven years, are in place to assist us in meeting these goals.
Teachers in the school’s World Language program begin to address these goals as early as Pre-Kindergarten. Not only is there a curriculum in place to meet students’ needs at this early age, but this curriculum builds through fifth grade and is staffed by two Primary School language specialists. Students gain exposure to both Spanish and French in the Primary School and then choose one of the two languages for study in the upper grades of this division. As students enter the Middle School, they often remain with the language they studied as fifth graders. Once in seventh grade, all students gain exposure to one trimester of Latin. Students then decide if they would like to study Latin in the years that follow. As they enter the Upper School, students continue their language study, generally opting to extend language pursuits beyond the language requirements set for the Upper School. During their high school experience, students who qualify can also pursue advanced placement work in their chosen language. Indeed, Kent Place is on the leading edge of a wide and growing movement toward internationalism in education, which is quickly becoming the national standard. During International Education Week 2007, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings remarked: Any students with access to a computer have the ability to be diplomats from their nation and researchers about events unfolding in every corner of the globe. More than ever, being prepared to contribute to a better world is about what you know, not where you live. Teaching students about international issues today will make us better equipped to tackle global challenges in the future.
Two experts in particular highlight a worldview much like the one Kent Place has adopted for its students. Nancy Carlsson-Paige is a professor of education at Lesley University, and Linda Lantieri is a former university professor and administrator and expert in social and emotional learning and conflict resolution. They echo Spellings’s sentiments: Young people are growing up in an increasingly interdependent world. News from around the globe is available in an instant; the Internet and mass communications give young people instant access to ideas and people from all over the world.… There is, therefore, an increasing awareness among students that a great many issues – the environment, health, the economy, nuclear weapons, international conflict – are intertwined at a global level. Technology is shrinking (or, in the words of Thomas Friedman, “flattening”) the world in which we live. Internet access allows young people to tap into the ideas and images shared online by others around the world at a moment’s notice. Young people can just as readily employ online technologies to publish their own communications. Spellings reflects, however, that these exciting opportunities require a great deal of responsibility.Young people need to serve as both “diplomats” and “researchers.” In other words, schools have an obligation to teach, and students have a duty to learn, the culture, history, politics and language of people around the globe. Respectful dialogue and an eagerness to understand the lives of others must stand at the center of the immediate access we now have to others’ lives and to our own ability to use our voices suddenly amplified by the miracle of the Internet. Internet access and an informed attitude toward people of other cultures now makes geography only a minor hindrance to communication. Technology can take us anywhere at any time. The old obstacles of time and travel are easily overcome. The only thing standing in our way today is what we know.
As our ability to communicate and travel becomes easier, faster and more readily expected, so grows the essential importance of learning a second and third language and understanding world cultures. Dan Davidson, current president of the American Councils on International Education, describes the types of knowledge and skills we need to operate as global citizens in the workplace, no matter the profession. Effective communication and successful negotiations with a foreign partner – whether a partner in peacekeeping, a strategic economic partner, a political adversary or a non-English speaking contact in a critical law enforcement action – requires strong comprehension of the underlying cultural values and belief structures that are a part of the life experience of the foreign partner. The study of world languages engages learners in the values and beliefs of other cultures. In New Jersey alone, according to a 2004 New Jersey Department of Education survey, there are over 100 ethnic groups and more than 150 different languages spoken in the state. Page 1