SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT: 

HOW ABOUT TEACHING ENGLISH? – OVERNIGHT, FROM THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE:    ST. CLOUD — Move over, Spanish and French. St. Cloud public schools next year will be offering Somali and Ojibwe to all students as elective languages.  "It just makes sense for us to have it," said Lori Posch, executive director of learning and teaching for St. Cloud schools. "We want to see our students represented in our courses."  The move comes after the St. Cloud school district this fall introduced what is thought to be the first native Somali language course in the state — and possibly the nation — for secondary students.  Some students who are immigrants or refugees have limited or interrupted formal education. The native Somali course is meant to bolster writing skills in those students' native language and, at the same time, build school skills and other language skills.  "Somali for native speakers was designed for students who didn't have a lot of English," Posch said. "Somali as a world language will be more of an introduction to kids that maybe hear parents speaking it — but to be honest, we have a lot of interest already from our non-Somali community in taking that class as a world language."  About 60% of the nearly 9,700 students in St. Cloud schools are students of color. That's a drastic change from a decade ago, when about one in four students were students of color.  About 41% of St. Cloud students are Black and 25% of students speak Somali as their primary language at home.   I seem to have heard this tune before.  It was called bilingual education, and it failed miserably in California.  Teach the kids the language of their new country, and make them excellent at it.  Then have them study other international languages.  Native languages can be picked up at home.

December 11, 2021