While languages are gaining clout in European school systems, they are declining in American public education. Subjects like languages, the arts, and physical education are being taken out of schools more and more frequently to make room for things like computer science and advanced math. But is this what’s really best for our public school systems?
In most of the western European countries, children learn more than two languages starting from elementary education. Most European students are learning English and another European language. That doesn’t mean however, that the American education system shouldn’t follow suit just because we already teach in English and Canada speaks English, too. Spanish is highly valuable in large portions of the U.S., but most students don’t start learning until high school or middle school and, for most, anything beyond two years is an elective.
One argument is that learning languages is not necessary in our English-dominated world. While English still dominates the Internet and is widely spoken in airports, hotels, and tourist spots, the fact remains that the vast majority of the world does not speak English. English speaking tourists can visit other countries and survive only speaking English, however, they will fail to fully experience the culture. Learning a language inevitably means learning about another culture and increasing global understanding. With increased globalization (which is not necessarily westernization), there is more interaction with non-English speaking cultures.
There are large portions of the country that do not speak English, and many children grow up speaking languages other than English. America is a country made of immigrants, and English is not the official language. As such, teaching foreign language in schools should be increasing in priority not decreasing.
Schools should prepare children for this world where languages are increasingly a skill necessary and valuable to future jobs. The world is getting smaller, and it is increasingly likely that the next generation will need foreign language proficiency. While there is a clear job incentive in teaching STEM-related skills to match the growing job market in those areas, public education should not be cutting languages. Being competent in a language is an asset to any resume. Two years of language education is not enough to achieve any level of fluency and as such, is a failure in the education system.
While there are plenty of arguments that the costs of language requirements in the American education system are high, the benefits arguably outweigh the costs for a large portion (though not all) students. The current system of education starts teaching languages past the point when children are most able to pick them up, which is around the age of 7. Starting language education earlier, and with more language variety -- regardless of the costs -- would better prepare American students for the international job market.
