Fluency Friday

After years of crusades from parents, students and policymakers, the importance of foreign language instruction is finally starting to sink in. Articles in both today’s Seattle Times and USA Today, extol programs that target students' multi-lingual capacity from an early age.

The USA Today article even cited the rarely-mentioned “National Security Language Initiative” introduced by President Bush in 2006 to teach the youngest students Chinese and other foreign languages considered critical to the nation's future security. Apparently, the Ed Department has awarded 88 grants totaling about $26 million to communities around the country to expand foreign language instruction beginning in kindergarten.

Let’s hope the trailblazing schools mentioned in the Seattle Times article—including Woodin Elementary in Bothell, Beacon Hill Elementary and the John Stanford International School in Seattle—are receiving these funds.