Governmental Visit to China to assess Chinese Public Schools

By John B. Walker

Ventura educator working to bring Mandarin language to schools

By Cheri Carlson (Contact) Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Ventura school board member John Walker wants to start teaching local students Mandarin, possibly as early as elementary or junior high school. John Walker joined other educators from throughout the country on a tour of Chinese schools this summer. Ventura school board member John Walker got inspired as he sat in a high school this summer in the Hubei province of China.

He talked to students who spoke easily in English and their native language and listened as they explained the importance of preparing for a global society. Returning to Ventura, Walker wanted to find ways to better prepare local students to compete globally, such as giving kids an opportunity to learn Chinese.

"I do believe that Mandarin is a language that we should give as an option in our schools," Walker said, and he has asked that the Ventura Unified School District board discuss the possibility at an upcoming meeting. "Students need to recognize that there are cultures well beyond the United States' walls," he said, and those cultures are becoming a bigger part of U.S. society and vice versa.

Federal education officials have labeled Chinese as "a critical need" foreign language, saying students mastering such languages will help the country remain competitive. In 2006, the U.S. Department of Education reported that more than 200 million children in China studied English, a compulsory subject for students there. However, only about 24,000 of the United States' 54 million elementary and secondary students were studying Chinese.

In Ventura County, several colleges and high schools have begun offering Chinese language classes in recent years, including high schools in Conejo Valley, Oak Park and Las Virgenes school districts that have Mandarin as a foreign language elective.

With the state budget crisis prompting millions in local cuts to public schools, Walker said it would be a bad time to make a suggestion that costs money. But, he said, he got interested in moving forward after learning about several opportunities for grants and other free resources. Walker wants to look at adding a high school Mandarin class first, and then consider adding Mandarin as an option in the district's language immersion programs, which now teach children in Spanish and English. In some U.S. schools, language immersion programs also teach a third language.

Ventura Unified has several language classes for students, including the dual language and foreign language classes in French, Spanish, German and Italian. Since Walker returned, Ventura Superintendent Trudy Tuttle Arriaga said officials have started "enthusiastically" researching possibilities for Mandarin classes, including looking at what other districts are doing in the county and statewide.

Walker was in China this summer as part of a group of 400 U.S. educators. The trip was organized by the College Board, which administers SAT and Advanced Placement exams. The College Board set up Chinese Language and Culture initiatives several years ago to support growth of Chinese classes in U.S. schools and build an AP Chinese program. The annual trip for educators is part of that program and is sponsored by both the College Board and Hanban, a Chinese agency that promotes the language internationally. The sponsors pay a majority of the costs, and Walker paid the remainder of his expenses himself.

Walker visited Beijing and Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, and spent days in three schools, sitting in on classes and meeting with students, teachers and administrators.

"It was an unbelievable trip," he said. "It made a lasting impression."