This week, PUSD’s School Board will vote on a plan to bring 60 minutes of weekly Latin instruction to the 5th grade schedule next year. As the parent of a current 4th grader, I’ll admit I was surprised when I first heard about this plan. Is a “dead language” really something today’s 11-year-olds need to spend time learning? But after learning more about the district’s rationale for bringing Latin to the 5th grade curriculum, I am impressed and grateful that our district is making this change.
Up until this school year, the earliest that PUSD students could start learning a foreign language was 8th grade – putting us behind our peer districts like Orinda and Albany, who begin foreign language in 7th and sometimes 6th grade, and well past the age when young brains are the most plastic and receptive to foreign language acquisition.
I was thrilled when Dr. Hawn and the School Board announced last year that they were exploring ways to bring foreign language instruction to the lower grades – and that they worked so quickly to make that priority a reality. Thanks to their efforts, this year’s 7th graders at PMS are now able to take Spanish, Mandarin, or French as an elective – and next year 6th graders will have the same opportunity.
Offering foreign language instruction at the elementary level, however, has proven to be a bit more complicated. While most parents expressed interest in Spanish instruction in 5th grade, offering only Spanish in the elementary schools would have a negative impact on French and Mandarin enrollment in secondary school. And logistically the elementary schools are unable to offer all three world languages.
Given those constraints, the School Board started exploring Latin instruction for PUSD’s 5th graders. While Latin will only be offered for 60 minutes per week, the district has made a strong case for the potential benefits including improving vocabulary and fostering literacy skills, academic confidence, and cultural awareness. I also really appreciate that our 5th graders will have the shared experience of confronting an entirely new language as their first classroom exposure to a foreign language – especially a language that serves as the foundation for so many other languages they may study in the future.
I am thrilled that my daughter will be one of the first PUSD students to receive Latin instruction next year, and I am grateful that our district has continued to find a way to bring foreign language to our younger students. At a time when much of America’s current leadership wants to isolate us from the international community, how wonderful that our district is working to create the next generation of global citizens.