Schooldkids Campaign To Save Local Language Teacher

[Mulboyne]

[floatl][/floatl]Statesman Journal: Students protest loss of teacher, class
Seventh-grader Ashley Hoff held a "Save the Japanese classes" sign and joined fellow Parrish Middle School students on Friday as they protested a decision that effectively eliminates foreign language classes at the school. Sue Luft, a Japanese language teacher, is being administratively transferred after 18 years at Parrish. Japanese is the school's last foreign language class, which are electives, at the school...Students gathered Friday to protest the decision, chanting, "Let her stay," and, "Save Ms. Luft." Secondary students did not have school Friday because it was a grading and staff training day. Sixth-grader Marisol Sagrero said she was planning on taking Japanese I next year after Luft piqued her interest during an exploratory Japanese class...Teachers union president Jane Killefer said Luft advocates for students and has questioned the school's focus on testing...She has 87 students in her Japanese I class scheduled for next year. That's a lot of kids in a middle school"...more...

[Kanchou]

And people wonder why Americans can only speak English. I mean, you'd think with Canada and Mexico next to us we'd at least speak a little French and Spanish.

[Mulboyne]

I wondered whether a school would try something like this:

WisconsinRapidsTribune: Lincoln High School aims to keep Japanese program

Lincoln High School's foreign language department leaders are getting creative in their search to find funding for the instruction. The Wisconsin Rapids School District, on behalf of Japanese teacher Yu Kitamura, applied for a Japanese Foundation grant to pay for 67 percent of the teacher's contract for next school year. The foundation provides aid to organizations throughout the world, seeking to deepen the understanding of the Japanese culture, according to its website. The grant's application deadline is the end of the month, while preliminary notification of awards should be made within two weeks, Kitamura said. "This grant is basically for any Japanese language program that might be reduced or cut because of the financial difficulties in education," Kitamura said. "There were about nine pages of application form, and we needed to talk about the history of the school district, how the district is supporting the foreign language education and how we (will) utilize the grant if it is approved"...more...