A parent's view of Chinese immersion schools for children

Why do we need a Chinese language immersion school in the Eugene School District?

What country is said to be destined to become the largest English-speaking nation in the world? Hint: It’s the same country that has bought $1 trillion of American debt and boasts a trade surplus of hundreds of billions of dollars with us year after year. Yes, China!

While America confronts record national debt and trade deficits, a too thinly stretched military, a battered middle class and plummeting world prestige, China enjoys an exploding economy, a modernizing military, a burgeoning middle class and growing world prestige.

More schools offer Chinese to children.

More schools teach Chinese

MASON - China's expanding global reach is taking hold in the classrooms of Greater Cincinnati as more schools are offering courses to teach Chinese.

And some schools are reaching halfway around the world to learn more about Chinese language and culture - and to recruit teachers.

Next school year, the Mason school district will join a small but growing list of area schools adding Chinese to the traditional menu of Spanish, French and German offered at most public schools.

"We are very excited to be able to offer this," said Nicole Huelsman, an assistant principal at Mason High School. "With China accounting for about 21 percent of the world's population, it is necessary to look in this direction."

The years three and four pupils at St Paul's Primary School in South Manchester will be the first children ....

Primary is first to put Chinese on curriculum

A primary school in Manchester has become one of the first in the UK to teach Chinese as part of its curriculum with help from teachers supplied by the Confucius Institute at The University of Manchester.
The years three and four pupils at St Paul's Primary School in South Manchester will be the first children in the north west to learn Mandarin during school time - even though only one of the pupils is of Chinese descent.

The Children - from Withington - will be celebrating Chinese New Year with a special performance at the school assembly this Friday (8 Feb) partly delivered in Chinese.

They have been in e-mail contact with youngsters at a primary school in Beijing to help them perfect their language skills and hope to gain an internationally recognised language qualification next year.

And in recognition of their success, the Office of Chinese Language Council International has just awarded the school the status of 'Confucius Classroom', which will enable it to act as resource for other schools in the area - with the help of University of Manchester staff.

Primary schools in England will receive about £340 extra each next year to support compulsory languages teaching.

Lord Dearing said: 'I invite all head teachers to see this announcement as an opportunity."

He said primary schools should press ahead with languages with the confidence that increased funding was secure for a further three years.

"By continuing to invest in more long term solutions, such as better trained teachers and more innovative resources, we will generate enthusiasm and confidence for studying languages in secondary school and beyond - far more effective than simple compulsion."

Mr Knight (schools minister) said the answer was to make children enthusiastic about languages at a younger age.