I am trying to fill out a survey for the school about the introduction of a third language in 5th grade. This is a given -- the school is definitely planning to introduce a third language at 5th grade. But which language?

So I am thinking about lots of questions like, how important is it to me that the third language be based on the roman alphabet? [my answer = not at all important, much harder would have been, how important is it that the third language *not* be based on the roman alphabet] that it have broad application around the world? that it represent a different area of the world? that it be continued in most high schools? [see, I have to check off pretty low priority on that last one, because the languages that I am most interested in seeing introcuded are Chinese, followed by Arabic] etc etc.

But the questions bring up things I hadn't thought of and now I don't know how to rank my languages. For example, of modern languages -- which was what I presumed we'd introduce -- I think our top choice should be Chinese. It's a really important language, and it gives us a chance to learn about a completely different culture that is becoming increasingly important in our world. Arabic for similar reasons, though I think its influence may be less important in the coming years.

But if I'm thinking strictly of academic benefit, maybe I want to see my child learning a bit of Latin. I learned no Latin. It's not a currently used language, but it's influence continues in our world.

Here's the list of languages we were asked to consider:

Arabic. . .Chinese. . .French. . .Greek
Hmong. . .Italian. . .Japanese. . .Latin
Russian. . .Somali. . .Spanish

[they were presented in that order, so I'm showing them that way, in case it interests anyone like it does me]

Of those, I have to rank my top three languages, and I've got five I'm still thinking about:

Chinese
Arabic/French/Latin (these are muddled tie for me at this point)
Russian

What do I have against Spanish? Nothing. It's just so ubiquitous that I figure it'd be easy for him to pick up if he wants to do so later -- high school, college, traveling, whenever. On the other hand, that's what I thought for myself and I never got around to trying to learning more than has seeped in through the cracks. Spanish would have been choice number six, but maybe it's more tied with Russian. Maybe it should replace Russian on my list (though Russia seems to be still important again, rather than fading off into the night . . . ).

Then, of course, because we decided this school was a better fit than the other immersion school we were considering, my child's second language is not a romance language, which means he doesn't have that tie into the romance languages that would make it easy for him to acquire more of those later in life. So maybe French or Spanish needs to be ranked high on my list.

I don't know. Now I realize I need to do some more thinking on this rather than just quickly filling out the survey and getting that off my list of things to do.

A well-run immersion curriculum gives children fluency in another language. They learn all the same things as other kids do, along with another language. My child is required to learn the same things as all other Minnesota public school students, in the same years as all other Minnesota public school students.

It isn't learning another language, it is learning in another language. That is the point of immersion. It is not to teach my child German, it is to teach my child normal kindergarten stuff. And his learning environment is in German.

Generally, the benefits of immersion become most obvious after the first year of immersion is completed, because the child needs that amount of time to fully understand the language. But I have to say, my child's English at home is now peppered with German at least 1/3 of the time. And he's still managed to learn concepts that we hadn't taught him before school started. Because that is what children do, they learn at an amazing rate.

Where does this ridiculous concept that children can't learn a language well if it isn't spoken at home come from? Generations of immigrants have moved to this country, speaking nothing but their native languages at home, and their children have managed to learn English and still excel in the classroom. Once again, that is what children do, they learn. And I do believe that learning another language gives one benefits beyond just learning that other language.

Now, I do think it behooves the parents to learn the language their child is immersed in, if they don't already know it. We're learning the simple words along with E-boy, and encouraging him to use them at home by using them ourselves. But he is already changing sentence structure to suit the German grammar -- it's not all about nouns, even at this early point. And so, we are going to learn German, starting in two weeks, because that is when we budgeted for purchasing the Rosetta Stone program.

I have to say, though, that we knew E-boy would take to learning another language like a fish in water, and so we felt comfortable putting him in a program where he would need to do all his learning in a foreign language. He is a language-based learner. I guess some children might not do so well in this environment, if their learning styles are completely anti-linguistic learning or something.

It's all about the school and the child. If it is a good school, with a thoughtfully run and carefully designed curriculum and good teachers, and if the school's environment and learning style suit the child, then the child will learn.

Oh, it's not all about the school and the child. It's about the parents, too. The parents have to be committed to the process that is immersion, and I think they have to want it for their child, they have to want the benefits of immersion and of other language fluency for their child. Some parents are following a trend just to give their "exceptional" children an advantage over everyone else. I can see their little brains clicking . . . "this will make Janey even more advanced than all her friends, and she will be the only one of them to get to Harvard and then I will be shown to be the genius parent." Then they freak out when little Janey isn't catching on quite as quickly as her friends in "regular" school two months into kindergarten. Well, no offense, but duh. If you aren't passionate about your child gaining fluency in another language, then you should be extra-careful making the immersion choice for your child.

I am, btw, speaking of full immersion programs, where English is never used except in the English language classroom. In E-boy's school, everyone who might encounter the children speaks German fluently, including the office staff. Dual immersion programs probably do not work as well, but I am not knowledgable enough about all the dual immersion models to say that as a blanket statement.

Finally, after all these months -- years even -- and all these schools, all this research into public education, immersion learning, curricula. Here is what I learned: I am the ideal candidate for charter schools. Yeah, yeah, Kate, you're probably all saying to yourself right now. We all knew that eons ago, nice of you to finally catch up with the rest of the class.

But really. I believe in public education. I know it has its flaws, I know it wasn't necessarily started for the broad, idealistic reasons for which I think it should be continued and supported now. I don't want to give up on the traditional public school system, or my school district. I want to encourage choice and creativity within the schools. I want to encourage change to the monolith system, not discourage teachers and students by saying that the only possible improvement is replacement.

Having said all of that, I am highly involved in my child's education, and I want to continue to be highly involved. Even though I don't intend to homeschool –- unless we decide that E-boy really needs that environment at some point in the future –- I have read many books on homeschooling, I've studied homeschooling curricula, I've purchased and borrowed parent-aimed activity idea books of various kinds. The smaller, more alternative format of charter schools will allow me to have more participation, and more meaningful participation. I can have opinions, and I can actually change things. We can make stronger, more personal connections. I can ask questions, and be challenging, but not risk upsetting the powers that be at my child's school. I am really excited by what I have learned during the course of this school research and selection process, and I don't want it to come to an abrupt halt when school starts. I anticipate joining a committee soon, and maybe running for Board membership in the following couple of years.

All of this is publicly funded, but because the school is a district unto itself, there is no monolith of administration.

I am so excited for E-boy to start school next year.

Anyway, this all came about after attending the two charter immersion school functions over the weekend. The atmosphere of the two functions was very different in many respects –- and told me a lot about the differences between the two schools. But I also discovered many similarities: A willingness to be challenged without taking offense. Passion, lots of it, on the part of the Board members. Creativity and a willingness to respond. A desire to have parents intimately involved in their children's educations, and in the school.

The German immersion is full of fun and light-heartedness. I know, you're all not believing me, are you? You're thinking . . . we're talking about Germans and German culture here. But it's true. The program was a picnic at a park. The only structure was that we did park-like things –- grilling if we brought grillables, eating at the picnic tables or on blankets, playing on the park equipment or just in the fields and the trees. People moved around, introduced each other, stopped to talk to random strangers and find out more about them.

The Mandarin immersion was also very responsive, but much more organized. It was a quiet question and answer, with people listening for a long while, taking notes, not involving themselves with their neighbors. I realize the formats of the two gatherings contributed to these feelings, but I have the very real sense that a German immersion Q&A would have felt differently and less serious or business-like, and that a Mandarin immersion picnic would not have been so free-spirited.

Since I've already talked a bit about the German immersion, here are my thoughts about the Mandarin immersion information session:

They spent a lot of time going over stuff that was on their website, and so people should already have known, and then opened it up to questions, which started out focusing on stuff that was on their website, and so people should already have known. Then it moved to other technical things, like bussing. I mean, here I am considering a highly alternative school that will be outside the normal public school realm, and will be immersing my child in a foreign language to boot. Do I really think the most important issue is whether *bussing* will be involved? And so I got really antsy and asked my two questions (I limited myself out of fairness for others, I could have asked questions to fill several hours), first about why they chose the Core Knowledge curriculum, what the Board's curriculum goals and educational philosophies were, and what they wanted to do with their own curriculum. Finally, we were getting somewhere. Then I asked what they mean when they say some variant of "strong academics" "challenging academics" or "high academic standards", which I've heard several times from the people I've spoken to on the phone, seen on their website, and heard mentioned twice during that very information session. As best they can, can they tell me what they're visualizing when they say "strong academics" and how that will translate into my son's classroom? And how, exactly, will their school have "challenging academics" beyond what the average school is doing? In other words, stop using a catch-phrase and tell me what you intend to *do*. Their answers surprised me, and then a bunch of impassioned Board members jumped up and started giving more insight, and people asked other interesting questions, and finally we started really talking about what matters about a school. And what really matters is not the bussing, is it? [Not that bussing isn't crucial to making a good program available to all, but for start-ups, bussing is usually cost-prohibitive, so first let's get a good program going, and *then* let's make sure we make it available to everyone.]