Janesville School Board candidates consider expanding Chinese instruction
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Karl Dommerhausen
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Kristin L. Hesselbacher
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Peter D. Severson
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JANESVILLE — Most candidates for the Janesville School Board said they’d consider cutting a European language to make room for Chinese in the middle and high schools, but they differ on the details.
The question arises because Mandarin Chinese instruction began at Harrison and Roosevelt elementary schools last fall, but no decision was made about continuing that instruction in the higher grades.
The candidates are vying for three seats on the school board in the April 6 elections. They were asked to respond to the question via e-mail.
Kristen Hesselbacher and incumbent Peter D. Severson support expanding Chinese to the higher grades. So does Diedre Richard, who dropped out of the race Tuesday but remains on the school board until late April.
Candidate Karl Dommershausen was more cautious. He said facts on this topic are difficult to find. Before deciding, he would need to know what languages are offered in the various grades, enrollment trends, global trends, recommendations from teachers and administrators and community sentiment.
The district currently offers French, German and Spanish in seventh through 12th grade. The numbers taking those languages in all those grades combined this year is 2,196 for Spanish, 471 for French and 291 for German.
“Personally, I am in favor of foreign-language teaching in our system because it provides for a well-rounded education, even though foreign-language instruction is not desired by everyone,” Dommershausen wrote.
Hesselbacher said German might have to face the budget ax.
“English and Spanish are of course the most widely spoken European languages, and Spanish is very useful for anyone who resides anywhere in the U.S. in terms of a job skill,” Hesselbacher wrote.
“As a proud German-American, it pains me to say that French may be the more useful language,” because it is spoken over a wider area, Hesselbacher wrote. “However, I would seek input from our curriculum coordinators and language instructors before making any final decisions.”
Hesselbacher said Chinese might be the most useful foreign language.
“Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more people on the planet than any other language, and China’s national economy ranks third in the world. As a trade partner, a political entity and a cultural force, China’s importance on the world stage will only increase over time,” Hesselbacher wrote. “An understanding of Chinese language and culture will be an asset for job-seekers across the globe for the foreseeable future.”
Severson supports expanding Chinese to higher grades, but only if the budget allows.
“For the coming year, this would mean adding some type of programming for sixth grade at Marshall (Middle School),” Severson wrote.
“I do believe that if a language offering were to be cut, it would be one of the European languages, likely French,” Severson said. “I would say that Spanish is our most important offering. Chinese would be next, even in the limited form we now provide. German would be next, followed by French.”
Severson suggested the district might save money by buying online Chinese instruction.
“I think that idea of being able to use the virtual classroom for language studies is truly one of the areas that online education can shine. As we have seen with the expansion of a language offering, budget concerns arise mostly because of high per-student staffing costs,” Severson wrote.
Richard said she’s willing to look at cutting a European language or other “special-area” course to make room for Chinese.
“When decisions are made to add new curricular offerings, it is important that our district is able to afford the corresponding costs or that other programs which do not have strong enrollment are removed to balance the cost,” Richard wrote.
“The Chinese offering is a great opportunity to positively differentiate the Janesville School District, provide our students with an appreciation for different cultures, and it is hard evidence that our district has a strong global vision in terms of academic planning,” Richard wrote.
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Candidate interviews online
Forward Janesville has once again recorded videos of candidates for Janesville City Council and Janesville School Board and posted them on its Web site.
The “Candid-ate Camera” effort asked council candidates: “Janesville has endured some challenging economic times for the past several years. If you could wave a magic wand and make three things happen to help assure Janesville’s economic future, what would they be and why?”
School board candidates were asked: “If you could wave a magic wand and make three things happen in our schools over the next decade, what would they be and why?”
The videos can be viewed at gazettextra.com/candid.
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The Janesville School District’s teachers union is endorsing one incumbent and two newcomers in the April 6 elections for three seats on the school board.
The Janesville Education Association announced it endorses Karl Dommershausen, Kristin Hesselbacher and incumbent Peter Severson.
The JEA screening committee arrived at its recommendation after private interviews of the candidates and a poll of JEA members.
The JEA said in a news release that the three candidates have a passion for serving students; a willingness to meet the needs of all students regardless of ability or background; a basic understanding of the “Fund 10 balance,” a reserve fund in the district’s operating budget; a realization of the importance of hiring and retaining the best educators; a desire to work for a stronger relationship with all district employees to achieve students success and a respect for diverse points of view.
One other candidate, Rene’ Bue, is listed on the ballot but has announced she has dropped out of the race.
Mar 25, 2010 at 5:14 p.m.
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@redhawk: Real persuasive listing of countries. It will entice me now to encourage anyone to focus on French for years of study. NOT...
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Countries where French is the--or one of the less spoken--national languages:
1 Belgium
2 Benin
3 Burkina-Faso
4 Burundi
5 Cameroon
6 Canada
7 Central African Republic
8 Chad
9 Comoros
10 Democratic Republic of Congo
11 Djibouti
12 France
13 Gabon
14 Guinea
15 Haiti
16 Ivory Coast
17 Luxembourg
18 Madagascar
19 Mali
20 Monaco
21 Niger
22 Republic of Congo
23 Republic of Equitorial Guinea
24 Rwanda
25 Senegal
26 Seychelles
27 Switzerland
28 Togo
29 Vanuatu
Mar 25, 2010 at 1:04 p.m.
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I truly hope Mr. Pederson's platform for board candidacy is more than just online foreign language learning.
Mar 21, 2010 at 10:59 p.m.
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Hornet, are you an absolute moron? French is the official language of 29 countries. Not used anywhere? Chinese is the official language of one country. Do you use Chinese in a Chinese restaurant? I doubt it. Where exactly do you plan on using Chinese in the future? The answer is nowhere. Why? Because China is a communist country that is demanding that American companies turn over confidential corporate information to the Chinese government in exchange for doing business there, so don't expect to see a lot of companies running to China in the years ahead just for the cheap labor. In fact, you'll see a number of them leaving China for greener pastures.
Mar 19, 2010 at 6:13 a.m.
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I work with a woman who received her college degree in French. One of the students I'm related to in the Jvl schools is taking French for the fourth year. She tells me that French is not used anywhere and that "my student" made a bad choice if planning to use it in the future. I agreed, that "my student" should have taken Spanish (and I wished Chinese would have been offered).
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I took Spanish and French in HS and recently took Chinese. French is fun, but I've never used it, not even in a french restaurant. I've used Spanish with local labor forces and expect to use Chinese in the future. Some friends of mine work for an industrial design company here in Wisconsin. They often have to go to China to check on the manufacturing of their products in the Chinese factories.
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The fight can go on about China manufacturing the goods we buy, but it's a fact that won't be won in this discussion thread. What is also a fact is that if we want to keep the design jobs, we need to stay on top of the job food chain. No design, no manufacturing. Where does the mfg take place? Most populated areas are Spanish and Chinese speaking countries.
Mar 18, 2010 at 8:22 p.m.
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Learning another language is a great thing. Why would we limit the opportunities that our children have? I was fortunate enough to be a foreign exchange student in high school and have hosted several exchange students since. I am appalled at how we, as a country, don't learn about other cultures and languages, while students in other countries are fluent in more than 2 languages. Furthermore, studies DO SHOW that children that learn another language at a very young age do a better job at learning English and within all other areas of education. Too much knowledge is always an asset. Too little can be dangerous.
Mar 18, 2010 at 7:25 p.m.
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Ok... here's the deal though, Chinese kids are taught from early on, to learn English. From an economic standpoint... to be universal in trade.... English is the CHOICE of "trade". German and Spanish are languages that are useful for travel. If there is a specialized field someone is going into for business... pick a language. I'm not racist, I'm a realist. Learning Chinese is silly. This is the USA... if someone wants to live here, they NEED to speak what the majority speaks. Seems simple to me...
Mar 18, 2010 at 3:37 p.m.
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If you consult sources on the most spoken languages, you will find the following are the top languages in the world:
873 million - Mandarin Chinese
322 million - Spanish
309 million - English
206 million - Arabic
181 million - Standard Hindi
Mar 18, 2010 at 3:19 p.m.
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From a higher education perspective...it will be difficult for high school students of Chinese to continue studying the language in college. Chinese course offerrings are limited in many medium sized and smaller schools.
Mar 18, 2010 at 2:43 p.m.
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My daughter is currently taking German. She loves it and gets straight A's in the course. She did research and found that in the global workforce market, companies prefer to hire people who can speak German over that of other languages (except English)...not the Mandarin Chinese, Spanish or even French. I forget the statistic she found, but it was something like 25% of all companies in business in America are German owned. One of them is our own locally operated Huffcor. Now taking into consideration that in the real world, outside of Wisconsin and the United States having the ability to speak German as your second language will get you farther, in the workforce and in general.
I hope that the JSD school board takes that into consideration when they are discussing dropping that class. German is far more recognized as a preferred (2nd) language than Chinese in the actual workforce, that is the goal after all is it not? To help the kids become more able to compete in a global workforce...at least that is what I was told when they started talking about adding Chinese they wanted the kids to have a advantage so they could work in a global market, well come to find out it is German that is what is asked for by top companies not Mandarin Chinese.
Please keep the German course, if you want to add Mandarin Chinese then great, but please don't take away the current courses offered.
Mar 18, 2010 at 2:31 p.m.
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justme46: Education - no matter the subject of study - is NEVER a waste of money!!! There's a wonderful old anonymous Chinese proverb that aptly states: "Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere."
Mar 18, 2010 at 1:42 p.m.
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Alright, whatever you just said. All I am saying is it is hard enough right now for our future generations to just learn english. I have a right to my opinion. Thank you.
Mar 18, 2010 at 12:27 p.m.
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Ah Justme46 -
Since I've been living in Hong Kong I have never seen the Mandarin and/or Cantonese languages written, spoken or displayed backwards, which I am guessing by your convoluted logic means right-to-left and bottom-to-top. What truly is backwards are small minded people who refuse to step beyond their limited mentalities. 忽略是愚蠢的！
Mar 18, 2010 at 12:23 p.m.
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paytomuchtax
Mar 18, 2010 at 11:55 a.m.
Suggest removal There is the whole problem in a nut shell. Don't you dare have an opinion unless it's politically correct
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It isn't about political correctness. It is about remembering history and trying to make those immigrating to this country feel more welcome than generations of old. It is about advancing as a group of people past "my way or ELSE!"
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and is the same as everyone else because you will get blasted. Wake up this is not an english speaking country
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CORRECT! We have no offical language. What would be wrong with this being a bi-language country? Why does it have to be only english?
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what that is ignorant statement
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Pretty much. You say it as if it should be but isn't. The US has no offical language. English has been adopted as the dominant language but yes that is changing. I honestly do not see that as an entirely bad thing. I would need to learn Spanish if the trend continues and I would be willing to do that.
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What is the reason to be against that? I can't think of a good reason...it is either a fear of change, a fear of not being able to learn the language or flat out racism.
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I don't think this is about political correctness. Are you old school or willing to progress?
Mar 18, 2010 at 12:17 p.m.
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justme46
Mar 18, 2010 at 11:20 a.m.
Suggest removal I also think teaching Chinese is a waste of money. Right now it is hard enough to teach our children how to read and write and now they want to teach them to read and write backwards
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I believe the research shows that learning a foreign language improves a child's ability to learn English. That might be the reason for the addition...research proves it will benefit the kids in the exact was you are concerned about.
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sorry that is a really crappy paragraph
Mar 18, 2010 at 11:55 a.m.
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There is the whole problem in a nut shell. Don't you dare have an opinion unless it's politically correct and is the same as everyone else because you will get blasted. Wake up this is not an english speaking country what that is ignorant statement maybe if we sopped catering to everyone we could get back to being a great county. OK every politically correct bleeding heart out there start the ripping on me for this because you know you will because you think your the only ones who are right..........
Mar 18, 2010 at 11:20 a.m.
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I also think teaching Chinese is a waste of money. Right now it is hard enough to teach our children how to read and write and now they want to teach them to read and write backwards? Do you think they only learn the language by saying it, NO they have to read and write it also. Sarah has a good idea if it is put into the school system though. JMO
Mar 18, 2010 at 10:57 a.m.
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chelleandlou: Last I heard, the public classes to learn English were filled most, if not all, of the time.
Mar 18, 2010 at 9:27 a.m.
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chelleandlou,
That was such an ignorant comment, it doesn't even deserve a response.
Mar 18, 2010 at 9:16 a.m.
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chelleandlou what a completely racist, ignorant statement.
"I mean seriously, how many people from Janesville will ever use it?" - What, nobody from Janesville ever actually moves away to go on to bigger and better things?
"A hispanic community that doesn't speak english and doesn't learn english because they are too lazy, don't care to, or don't know where to go to learn it." - Nice. How racist can you get?
"I don't think we should have to learn their language to communicate with them in an english speaking country." - Wake up. This is not an "english speaking country". You just sit up there on your pedestal while all of the non-whites learns YOUR language so you can "communicate" with them...or should I say THEY can communicate with YOU.
You know, since they're idiot, lazy, non-whites who should have to do more of the work in the whole communication process.
Mar 18, 2010 at 8:49 a.m.
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I think it's more important to teach the hispanic community english than it is to teach our kids to speak Chinese. I mean seriously, how many people from Janesville will ever use it? French and Spanish are the most important of foreign language as we have Canada to our north and Mexico to our south and a hispanic community that doesn't speak english and doesn't learn english because they are too lazy, don't care to, or don't know where to go to learn it. I don't think we should have to learn their language to communicate with them in an english speaking country. They should have to learn english before obtaining a visa or becoming a citizen. If they're here illegally they should be deported.
Mar 18, 2010 at 3:59 a.m.
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Has the district ever offered different languages between the two high schools? For example, when I attended high school in Beloit (in the mid-1970s), Beloit Memorial and Beloit Catholic high schools offered a type of "swap". Students from Memorial interested in learning Latin would come to Catholic High for the class; meanwhile, Catholic High students wanting to learn German would go to Memorial for that course. The same (no matter what language was sought) could be accomplished between Janesville Parker and Janesville Craig in my opinion. Also, I would think the district could apply the same theory to other courses. It would save money yet increase student options.
Mar 17, 2010 at 9:03 p.m.
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Why can't we offer more languages, and why can't we require every child to take a language?
Mar 17, 2010 at 5:27 p.m.
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As a parent in the School District of Janesville, I participated in a survey of parents regarding World Language offerings about two years ago. At that time, the parents supported Spanish, French and German as the top three picks. I believe that these are the languages that Janesville offers. Why does this continue to be such a "hot topic" with the School Board? Did the parents' opinions count?
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