A fascinating article here from Mandarin Immersion Parents Council on Lake Forrest, Illinois immersion program.
I wish we had the problem. As it stands the only public immersion school is in Henry County (don’t live there, can’t enroll in the charter school).
Attendance in the Lake Forrest immersion class has skyrocketed, leaving the English program in the dust.
The article states
Suddenly a school district that had always prided itself on neighborhood schools was faced with a dilemma. An extremely popular program had unintentionally turned the traditional English program into a minority within a school—and enrollment in the English program was continuing to decline.
I don’t get it. Are these parents really worried about their children learning English, the language spoken in their homes everyday? The language used in all the television and print their children have access to.
I wonder how the school board meeting went when this went down:
Things got testy. Parents who chose the traditional English program felt their children were not getting the attention they deserved. A few vocal parents made comments about elitism, fairness and the involvement of the Chinese communist government. While these few parents did not represent the overall tone of the English program families, there was broad concern about the English program becoming a minority within the school.
Maybe I need to attend the local school board meetings and complain about the lack of Mandarin immersion options.
