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News > In the Headlines
In the spring, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley announced the city's public schools would boost their Chinese and Arabic foreign language programs with federal dollars and reallocated local money, part of a push to help American students compete in an increasingly global business climate. But the love for language has yet to trickle south, with Oak Lawn High School District 218 declining to expand its foreign language classes, which currently include French and Spanish courses for the school's 1,100 students. Oak Lawn Supt. Michael Riordan said it's a question of priorities, and not a matter of funding or lack of district interest. Ongoing reading, math and social initiatives trump the need to adopt a new and potentially costly program, he said. "We need to make sure we're doing our best to catch them up in reading and math," Riordan said. "There's only so much you can handle at once." But that rationale has drawn backlash from proponents who say opting out of teaching Arabic - identified by a 2006 federal initiative as a "critical need foreign language" - puts Southland area students at a competitive disadvantage. "What I believe is that the school does not care about their students, especially Arabic students," said Mohammed Sahloul, president of the Bridgeview-based Mosque Foundation. "Or they are completely entrenched ... that they cannot change it easily." In a survey issued throughout the Oak Lawn district in the spring, students were asked to rank languages they'd like to learn, Riordan said. Riordan said students ranked Polish first. Arabic finished at or near the bottom. Still, with federal dollars available, a precedent set in Chicago and at least some students interested in learning Arabic, proponents say it's time for area schools to step up. "It's really making we wonder. Here I am in Chicago, living in the Dark Ages, only learning one other language, and that's it," said Salma Safadi, a Syrian-born Bridgeview mother who carts two of her four children to Villa Park for weekend Arabic classes. "Arabic is more of a critical language. Private jobs or governments jobs, it's going to help." While the decision at Oak Lawn High School is final, at least for this semester, beefing up the foreign language curriculum is already under consideration at Consolidated High School District 230, which includes about 9,000 students from Andrew High School, Sandburg High School and Stagg High School. "We are not specifically looking to add language A, B, or C," said Brenda Reynolds, who oversees District 230's curriculum. "This is a full-blown evaluation." In addition to staffing and funding issues, District 230 officials say they are considering whether current course offerings, which include Spanish, French, German and Latin, are providing students with enough of a global outlook. "The world is flattening out, whether we understand that or not," Reynolds said. "We have to prepare (students) for whatever that possibility is for whenever they walk out the doors." Casey Cora can be reached at ccora@southtownstar.com or at (708) 802-8812. |
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