— DISCLAIMER: this is an opinion article, The Independent Dragon does not endorse or direct the content of this article —
Summit Public Schools prides itself on offering students an alternative to the traditional public school system. We challenge our students to be reflective about their learning, to set clear goals, and to track their own progress toward achieving them. We encourage our students to think critically. In just the same way, our administrators and our board should uphold the same critical thought and self-reflection for ourselves. As we pride ourselves on offering something more to our students, we should make certain we do not offer them less. As things currently stand, that is exactly what we seem to be doing with world language education.
In the 2022 school year, the decision was made to no longer support Summit Public Schools’ Spanish curriculum on the Summit platform. Further barriers were thus imposed on an already historically marginalized subject in California. Students have consistently faced confusion on how to access their current progress in Spanish class, with their Spanish grade on the platform permanently reading “N/A.”
Our students deserve better than “N/A” when it comes to language education.
In fact, our students are more than ready to be challenged with a rigorous language education in the same way they are in STEM and in the humanities. Many of our students arrive to us already multilingual. And, our multilingual learners know well the benefits of proficiency in multiple languages. Our multilingual students feel the tangible benefits of their skills each time they help a parent or caregiver translate during a meeting; each time they ace the “Word Meanings” assessment because it includes many Latin root questions; and each time they apply for jobs where bilingualism is encouraged or even required.
I also personally know how beneficial a diverse world language education can be. For me, being multilingual is the reason I have been afforded most of my life’s opportunities. I grew up in an impoverished area of Appalachia, literally atop a filled-in coal mine beside neighbors who you might count among the opioid epidemic’s first victims. This region where I went to a traditional, K-12 public school is not known for language diversity. Indeed, for generations immigrants to Appalachia discarded their first languages and took up English-only, just as many still do, just as my own did. They assimilate.
I have always been a little divergent, and growing up, my dream comprised one main thing: to leave my hometown as soon as humanly possible. In order to achieve this, I sought to learn about places as far from my coal-country holler as I could get: China, France, Kenya, and beyond. This willingness to learn combined with the key ingredient of an availability of language classes led to me receiving the David L. Boren scholarship, which paid for an entire year of college, and it is the reason I secured multiple jobs since: as a teacher in Chicago, a translator in Florida, and a lecturer for the Peace Corps in Rwanda. All of these enriching experiences came from the world language education I was so fortunate to receive.
During my time in high school, however, my district only offered two world languages. My school was regularly lacking resources. I recall near-annual paper shortages when teachers would get creative by printing exams and worksheets on the back side of last week’s leftover worksheets. Other schools in our same county were even less advantaged. That said, there was one aspect about my high school that not a single other school in the county could say: we only offered two world languages. Even schools with fewer resources offered more than two.
And in offering only two world languages, we were still offering more than Summit currently is.
To be clear, my purpose is not to attack Summit Public Schools. Rather, I want to challenge our Summit Public Schools community to do better, because we can and we should. For the benefit of our students, we should equip them with a diverse toolkit of language skills. A world languages department should do what its name implies and offer the world.
I am not without hope, though, as Summit Public Schools are in an exciting period of transition. Our new CEO, Ms. Cady Ching, knows the benefits of multilingualism, too. I am grateful that in 2020-21 as a teacher resident at Summit Prep, I got to know Ms. Ching as the then-executive director. In modeling how to empower voices of the global majority, Ching has consistently made an effort to elevate indigenous and multicultural communities, and there’s no reason to think this would not continue in her role as CEO. She has stated–and made good on–her intention to listen to the whole community; and it is for that reason that I call her in to this cause.
In writing this opinion piece, I invite CEO Ching to work with our diverse faculty and communities to expand our world languages. Last year, she was gracious enough to share with all of us a high-level overview of her vision for SPS. This vision includes empowering schools to decentralize and to make improvement a collective responsibility. In this spirit, I urge her and the full leadership team to work with us to improve our world languages and to make the department truly of the world, with multiple options for study; options that reflect not only the rich diversity of the communities we serve, but surpass it even and reflect the diversity of the world. Along with maintaining and strengthening Spanish, why not offer Japanese, French, Portuguese, or German? Why not note the direction of world economies and prepare our students by offering Arabic, Swahili, or Chinese?
Some may note that adding new courses is not a simple task. Of course, new faculty must be hired, and curriculum must be added. However, we are preparing a transition away from the Summit Platform to Canvas next school year. Moreover, Spanish was not supported on Summit’s platform for the past two years, anyway. Therefore, the existing precedent implies that it really should not be such a monumental shift to expand the languages offered. In fact, this may be the best time to do so as we move all of our curriculum over to the new learning management system. Existing structures like Expeditions may even hold an opportunity for language study.
Whatever the structural solution may be, I urge our leaders to find one rather than accept the status quo which is to do the bare minimum when it comes to providing our students with world-class world language instruction. Let’s set this goal, complete it, and in so doing, continue to make good on Summit’s promise to offer a “consistent high-quality” education.
(Cover Photo Credit: Adobe Stock Images)
