The Stowe School Board said au revoir Monday to the school system’s long-running French program, and in the same breath said ni hao to Chinese.
The board voted unanimously to replace French with Chinese, starting this fall, in a phase-out, phase-in schedule that will last for seven years.
Monday’s decision followed nearly 90 minutes of debate among concerned parents and community members for and against studying Chinese.
Though board members said they are sensitive to the concerns of people who want to keep French, board director Cam Page summarized the board’s reasoning this way:
“We do not want to add (a Chinese language program) into the budget at town meeting next year. People won’t pass an addition.”
Earlier, the board had toyed with the idea of continuing the French program and adding Chinese as a fourth language option — Spanish and Latin are the others — as an extra expense in next year’s budget.
Also discussed was adding Chinese as pilot program at the sixth-grade level before deciding to replace one language altogether.
The board felt Stowe voters would not pass a school budget that expanded the language programs during a time of fast-rising property taxes. Board members also pointed out that adding Spanish to the elementary school curriculum next fall will be a future expense.
The Stowe Education Fund has committed to funding the Spanish start-up, but eventually it will have to be funded by the community at large. To add both Chinese and Spanish to the taxpayer burden was not seen as fiscally possible.
The board also felt it needed to approve the Chinese language program quickly to find a good teacher. School Superintendent Alice Angney said two applications have been received for a Chinese teacher since job advertisements started three weeks ago.
“This is the time when teachers are hired. To find the best person, we need to do it now,” said Don Post, a school board member.
Aligning with Post, board member Terry Dwyer said, “I wish we had another few weeks to discuss it, but we don’t. We have to do what our children need and that is to introduce an Asian language program. It is the future.”
The proposal to replace French with Chinese came from Stowe school administrators three weeks ago. At the time, Angney urged the board to think about the proposal and talk with community residents before voting. The proposal was spurred by retirement of Stowe’s French teacher Betsy Austin.
The administration felt it was an good time to make a change in the school’s language offerings, given the emergence of China as an economic power. Mandarin Chinese is spoken by nearly one-quarter of the world’s population, far outnumbering the French-speaking world.
On Monday night, the school board adopted the proposal with no changes.
Logistically, the switch from French to Chinese will look like this:
Students ending sixth grade this June who want to pursue French will be provided classes through high school.
The middle school will add a half-time Chinese teacher this fall for incoming sixth-graders, and those students will be able to choose either Spanish or Chinese in an exploratory year of study. In ensuing years, the Chinese program would grow, and in two years a full-time Chinese teacher would be needed at the high school.
A replacement for retiring French teacher Betsy Austin will be found to teach the students who are continuing with French. By the year 2012, the last class of students taking French will graduate, and the phase-out will be done.
On Monday, concerned parents cited many reasons for keeping French in the schools.
“The last time I checked, we border a Spanish-speaking country and a French-speaking country,” said Diane Cawley, mother of two at Stowe schools.
Cawley also raised concern that Chinese would serve only a small fraction of students at the middle and high school — specifically, those interested in business as a career.
But Janice St. Onge, who also has children in Stowe schools, said she supports the Chinese proposal because studying the language will open doors and create opportunities for students.
“China is the fastest-growing economic and political superpower in the world,” she said, and not far in the future, U.S. children will be working in the Chinese culture. Many at the meeting were concerned that the decision was rushed and the program not completely thought out.
“Let’s not rush to take French out,” said Sheila Goss. She said Stowe High is still trying to build walls, as the school was built during an era when open classrooms were being experimented with. Some feel adopting Chinese as a foreign language is equally unproven.
Betsy Austin, the school’s retiring French teacher, pointed out that young people will do business with Africa in the future, as well as Asia, especially given the political unrest and widespread AIDS epidemic there.
Another interesting account came from Etienne Morris, a Stowe High graduate who took French with Austin. She said learning the language was a positive experience. During high school, she took part in an exchange with a French family.
“The issue really is a heartfelt one for me,” Morris said. “I believe if there has to be a choice, though, it has to be Asian studies,” because knowing an Asian language may give students an edge in college admissions.
In the coming weeks, Stowe will be receiving applications for a Mandarin Chinese teacher as well as a replacement French teacher. Angney said applications will be accepted until the position is filled.
Once a teacher has been hired, curriculum development will start. Stowe will likely collaborate with the Asian studies department at the University of Vermont as well as other resources to develop the Chinese language curriculum, Angney said.
