Connor H. New York

Foreign Language for all!

We should start teaching foreign language in our public grade schools to children in first or second grade for its many advantages like better mental and social skills. There are little negatives to this implementation of foreign language in grade schools but the positive overrule the negative greatly.

 Dear Mr. or Mrs. President

I, and most other people know that when kids are taught a foreign language along with their native language they not only excel in that other language but the excel in other subjects. The United states of America has the ninth highest average in the world and guess what one of the major differences between our schools and theirs? You guessed it right, most of the school in these countries begin teaching their student between 6 and 9 a foreign language. I am aware that it would increase the school's budget but for what is the cost compared to the outcome. The implementation of foreign language into our public grade schools, the outcomes are not only being a better foreign language student but most students also become better listeners, more creativity, better memory, better mental flexibility, and increased social skills. Like most of American students I started learning a foreign language at the age of 12 years and foreign language is the most difficult topic for me. However I would bet that if I was taught a foreign language since the age of six then it wouldn't be so hard of a topic and i would probably be able to excel way better at it. With students learning another language so soon that means they would become a fluent speaker faster right? So, with that being said then when they finish that language they can move on to another language and become a polyglot. Learning a second language earlier would also allow students more time to learn english. People usually don't travel due to being scared of messing up and not being able to fix it without knowing the native language, if people know many languages then they are most likely confidently willing to travel the world. Fluently speaking multiple languages also open up a wide variety of jobs that other wise would not be available or harder to get. One of the biggest concern is that student won't have enough time in their schedule for the extra class. They say there is no time in the student's schedule but what is the time being saved from cutting cursive from the curriculum being used for and in the other countries they only have foreign language for 60 minutes a week. In the U.S. we have foreign language class for 287 minutes a week. If we have it for longer then why are they smarter? Well the answer is that since most of us have been speaking a single language for 12 years of our life our brains are comfortable with that language and only that language so we get confused, but if we were to be taught the language while our brains are developing we would be able to eliminate as much confusion as possible and become better foreign language students. So I ask you to add to the curriculum that student attending a public grade school must begin learning a foreign language in first or second grade.

                                                                                                                                               Sincerely,                                                                                                                                                                                  Connor Handel

Kimberly Young

Social Studies 8H

Honors Class 2016-2017

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