To what extent should foreign education be offered in public schools?

Summary

Foreign education has been considered a given in American Public Schools for decades. However, that is not necessarily the case anymore. Foreign programs are being eliminated from elementary, junior and senior high schools across the country. A variety of reasons have been given from schools that have eliminated or are considering eliminating or reducing their foreign offerings. The most common explanation is a lack of finances to sufficiently run a foreign education. Other excuses range from school reform, shortage of teachers, and state mandated standards to a lack of community involvement. Research suggests that foreign education can improve various cognitive functions directly related to other school subjects such as math and reading. In addition Foreign can have a positive impact on peoples' aesthetic processes as well. In this paper, we try to focus on the importance of public schools. The paper will be discussing about the importance of foreign education in public schools as well. The paper will be highlighting the benefits of having foreign education.

Introduction

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), Public Law 89-10, of 1965, addressed issues of equal educational opportunity and was the beginning of substantial reform efforts in the succeeding years. The bedrock in President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, ESEA extended state consideration of payments in providing state aid in the Act of September 30, 1950 (Public Law 874, 81st Congress) (Gray, 1). Foreign education should be introduced in public schools as well. The creation of a single system of public education marked a decisive change in the organization and delivery of formal schooling. In 1800 the United States was already one of the most literate nations in the world, an achievement reached through a variety of means (Gray, 1).

The Protestant emphasis on the importance of reading, especially the Bible, for religious instruction was crucial, and literacy was enhanced by the expansion of a market society, inexpensive newspapers, a more reliable postal service, and the widespread belief in the North that intelligence and virtue were the foundation of republican citizenship. Education was seen increasingly in the nineteenth century as the cure for poverty, crime, and family distress, a legacy that proved enduring. While only one of many sources of education in the early 1800s, schools were growing in influence. Many schools existed, but there was as yet no school system (Gray, 1).

Background

In the northern countryside, district schools, supported by public taxes, private donations, and occasionally tuition, were fairly prevalent. They enrolled boys and girls alike and taught the elementary branches of knowledge in ungraded classrooms for a few short terms each year. District schools first appeared in the rural North by the middle of the eighteenth century. Massachusetts, the nation's leader in school innovations, made the district the legal basis for education outside of the cities in 1789. District schools were often called common or public schools in the antebellum period, and the local control of schools became a hallowed political ideal (Adrian, 1).

Speaking two languages ...