Same old story whenever anything new and useful is introduced. People are always going to fight it tooth and nail. There's too much rhetoric in these comments and not a whole lot of sound arguments.

Educators in this Country still don't get it! Has anyone paid any attention to the reason for the high drop out rate? Does anyone give a damn in this city? Kids already have a had time with getting through the curriculum! You have already forced Spanish on our kids, & lets face it, English has become the second language, & now you want it to be third behind with Chinese. Why can't we do what makes sense, & make the Spanish speaking immigrants learn English. Let English speaking American's learn Spanish, Chinese, Russian, or whatever.. IF THEY WANT TO. Too bad we voted Socialist, boarding communist, to the School Board. Too bad we can't see some of these school board members in action before we vote for them. Take note constituents.. I know I won't be casting votes for a few board members again.

Ok, People...we all get that it's great for people to have more than just one language to speak...and it's great that we, the taxpayers pay for it...yipee, I'm thrilled...and it's great that kids are happy to be learning something new...yeah, yeah, yeah...great...

And when can we expect students to have a better grasp of the language that the state "requires" for them to graduate from school...that's English, just in case someone forgot. Could we do THAT before we require another language? Can we, huh???

But for gods sake, why is is mandatory? And only at one school?

Aren't the OTHER students worthy of being taught chinese?

And how in the world did the people running our schools NOT know that it was going to be mandatory??? Aren't at least MOST of these people college educated? You'd think that there would have been a class or two on communications, wouldn't you????

If any of you complaining have ever been to China you would find the english language is more widley spoken there than it is here. Although not as clearly, but they are willing to learn and expand their knowledge, something you want to suppress in our children. Also the Chinese Moon Festival is not about religon it is about a fable that has been around for generations, the library has excellent reading on the subject, as well as the other Chinese festivals. Stop being so closed minded.

Oh, and I agree with the general theme of comments, that language should be required, but the choice of which one should be left to parents.

@hannah

Saying that Spanish is more useful than Chinese is short-sighted, in my opinion. While it's true that Mexico is closer, China has one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and far outnumbers us as far as sheer population.

I agree that today, you as an adult will probably get more use out of Spanish, but I would think that kids that are only ~10 years old now would see more opportunities by having an understanding of Chinese.

Ugh, uninformed people. Yin and Yang has nothing to do with religion, it's part of Chinese *philosophy*.

That'd be like wanting to ban talking about feminism on religious grounds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_yang

localmatters....me, too! :-)

yeah right

我喜歡漢語。

I volunteer at Monroe Elementary and get to spend a fair amount of time with one particular First grade class. I spoke with the teacher and asked if she minded me teaching her students some basic sign language. One 20 minute time frame was set up just before lunch, once a week. These children ate it up. I found that 1/4 of the students had a friend of the family or family member, who was hearing impaired and already knew some sign. When these kids were standing in their lunch line or walking down the hallway, instead of hearing all the "shhs", you would see these students signing to eachother. I've always said we should offer sign in schools. But I wonder if it will ever happen.

No one understood it would be mandatory!?! Maybe classes in effective communication instead of foreign language (for our students/leaders) could be the goal.

Sandra Fisher doesn't want children exposed to Chinese and single-handedly gets it axed in the course of a week, thereby getting the Janesville School Board to admit they don't really know what they're voting on.

Bill Fisher of Rock Soccer single-handedly gets the City of Janesville to allow him to remove part of a cohesive public sports complex and replace it with an ugly sign because he decided its within his rights.

Any relation? They sound like mob family at the very least!

I don't agree with the class being mandatory.
I think that foreign languages should be available, not forced on students.

dwnnchols03-Maybe you should go to Harrison with your kids and learn some sentence structure, punctuation and spelling. That one sentence paragraph is ridiculous.

I'm glad I don't live in Janesville. From the attitudes expressed there, you are putting yourself in the LEAST likely position to participate in the global economy. You must not need the business or something...

3/4ths of the Chinese people I've met started learning English in elementary school AND (horror or horrors!) they had they sense to study our culture. They understand that you need more than language to do business. Good luck in the 19th century.

im on both sides of this my daughter goes to harrison and she is in 3rd grade and just loves the class and is doing very well and i think it is great for them to be teaching this do i think maybe it should be spanish thou cause that seems more what we need in our contry but i can understand the other people are sayin at the school if there kids struggle in english then it doesnt seem very wise to have them tryin to learn something else my son is in second grade and has a hard time in school so think it would not be good for him but good for others i would like to take the time to say thank you to the school board for approving this but do think it should be volitary and the parents should decide what is best for there child

As a parent and educator, I think that elementary age students should have *daily* instruction in a second language. Educational research shows that this must start young and be consistent. If you've ever traveled abroad, you'll know that it's common to be fluent in two, three, or four languages. If you look at projections from the U.S. Census Bureau, you'll know that our own country's demographics are rapidly shifting.

The problem that I have with this Chinese program is that it's not daily and that there are no assurances that it will be taught K-12. That is a pedagogical matter, and a failure of the school district - if you're going to implement a new program, you need to ensure it's effectiveness and sustainability.

I'm saddened by statements like "The Chinese language and culture should not be forced on impressionable kids." For real? We live in a global society. America is not the only country in the world, and we're not #1 in terms of population or education. If we don't make changes to our K-12 education system - including new initiatives with technology and foreign language - there will be dire consequences.

I have heard the same thing that Chinese is a hard language to learn, and really wonder in the long run just how much benefit these kids will get.

I learned French in high school 25 years ago, and except for the trip to France right after high school I have never used it since.

No real opportunity. I would question the same with teaching Chinese.

I wish my child's elementary school taught a foreign language (learning any foreign language would be beneficial, even if it's only a few times per week). It was ALWAYS intended to be part of the core curriculum for 3rd, 4th and 5th grades; do parents not understand what "core curriculum" means?

I pity the children whose parents only want their offspring exposed to "our national language" (by the way, the U. S. has no official language, folks). They may never realize there is a great, big world of people and opportunities outside Janesville's boundaries.

I'm not in the Janesville school district so really, I don't have a dog in this fight. But, after reading the article and subsequent comments, I'd like to share my own views.

I should think it is very difficult to teach a child a second language if they don't have a good, basic grasp of their first language. From what I've seen, there are many, many elementary age students who struggle with basic spelling, grammar, and sentence structure in English. In my opinion, ANY foreign language being taught at that level should be predicated upon the student having proven a mastery of the basics of English.

Part of success in learning another language is how often you are exposed to it and how often you use it outside the classroom. I'll venture a guess that there is only one educator in these schools that speaks Chinese fluently. Further, I'm guessing there is a rather small portion of the local population that speaks it as well. The students taking this class have very limited opportunities to practice the skills outside the classroom. If they were instead taking Spanish as a second language, there are considerably more speakers in their immediate area to listen to and converse with so as to practice their skills.

I've seen two conflicting reports here. One that the students take the class just a few times a month and another that they take the class at least ten times a month. In either case, I'd question the effectiveness of the lessons, given what I said above about the lack of opportunity to practice the skills outside the classroom. Chinese is a very difficult language to learn when taught properly, let alone in a piecemeal fashion. What is the point of a mandatory class that, by its very design, won't effectively teach the subject matter?

I don't question the great opportunity for the students to learn about the language and culture of China. That country is indeed a world power, whether you agree with their politics or not. I just think the educational needs of the students would be better served by first having them master the basics of English, then allowing them to take a foreign language only if their grades reflect the study skills necessary to learn it.

I think this is a big waste of time. Teach them a language they will have the chance to use often in life, like Spanish. Really at this age kids have a hard enough time with the English language, some need to master that first.

The class is not being taught twice a month. It is 3 times one week and 2 times the next week for a total of 10 times per month. I think the opportunity is great, but should not be mandatory. I also don't like the idea of it coming out of reading time.

If this class is only being taught once every two weeks I doubt that these kids are going to learn much in a year. Chinese is a pretty difficult language to learn so I'd be more concerned with how much we're paying this "teacher" for at best giving these kids a cursory look at the Chinese language.

Thanks to a handful of parents, Janesville's ugly aethnocentric face is showing again. Education in ANY subject is ALWAYS beneficial. Students who have studied with Gallant know she's an exceptional teacher. Shame on Severson, Sodemann and the Sandra Fischer. The only ones who lose in this current debate? Those students who would have had their lives enriched and their worlds expanded by learning the Chinese language and culture. How very, very sad that not only will they be more limited by unfounded fears of their parents but it's even more disturbing that just a few parents can repeatedly make the school district "lay down and roll over".

When you are in debt to a Country, they get things. Maybe the next time you vote for a program that is not paid for, but borrowed from Communist China, you will think twice.

Anyone who speaks more than one language has an advantage over everyone who doesn't. Those who think that learning Chinese is some sort of evil thing are fools. Like it or not Chinese is an increasingly important language in the world.

Any foreign language class is fun, especially for young students. You sing, play games to memorize the words, eat fun treats, and basically learn something your friends and family members don't know. It's not math or social studies, so of course the kids like it.

My daughter is in 4th grade at Harrison. This article is portraying this like it is a constant, every day event. The Chinese class is once every other week- twice a month. It is an enjoyable class that my daughter has only had twice so far this year. Knowledge is NEVER a bad thing. You can NEVER know too much, but, you can quite often know too little. THis is a fun course. The kids are enjoying it. It is a few minutes every couple of weeks. How many of these complaints are simply coming from people that are so Eurocentric that the teaching of ANY other language or culture scares them?

The other problem with adding Chinese to the curriculum is that it is taking away from other subjects. I believe my child's class is losing reading time and social studies time to study Chinese. Why not make it an elective at the middle and high school levels for students who might find Chinese beneficial for a possible future career?

I agree wth you okiefed!

For once, I am joining the ranks of those who state they are glad they never chose teaching as a career. The latest trend is not about learning Chinese; the latest trend is to question every detail of every program offered in the schools. Good luck, educators ... it's gonna be a long school year.

I am a tax payer and want to know why my child should be mandated to learn chinese?? This is America and our language is english! Let elective languages be just that! Im expecting my elementary kids to learn our language first! Other languages should be an elective later on with life and not in elementary school!!!! Chinese because of our economy? Please! Our kids are little and need middle school, high school and college before they need those worries people!!

One child's view: "I love learning Chinese and the teacher is awesome! We learn lots of cool stuff."
*
Yes, a child excited about learning. Shame on the school for doing that to our children. How dare they make them learn something fun with real world applications in this new global economy.

Wow. I cannot believe that this is even an issue. It is a wonderful opportunity for the children lucky enough to attend those schools. Spanish is offered at summer school so your child can also learn Spanish if you wish. If you think Spanish should be taught then write a grant to get it funded or fund it yourself! I cannot believe someone is complaining about the children learning about a fall festival and claiming that is a church/state issue...talk about being desperate to find a reason to complain! Some people in this town just boggle my mind with how closed minded they are. Get a hobby that doesn't interfere with the children getting a great education! As for it being mandatory, it is a class. Should all classes be optional? I am really having a hard time understanding anyone objecting to this.

Teaching kids another language at a young age is a great idea. However it needs to be an option, or made available to those students that already have a strong mastery of English. A big problem in this city is that way too many kids show up to school lacking basic skills such as, which way to hold up a book, what are the main colors and shapes, how to say the alphabet, how to count to ten, etc. etc. It is very, very sad, but unfortunately it is true. Hopefully P4J will help change some of this.

Now we have yet another confirmation that our schools are being run by virtual dunces and blithering idiots. Chinese? From what I've personally seen is that we would be way better off teaching students English, reading and writing. And then we have the not quite right for prime time teacher "working toward her license"? OMG! What next the janitor teaching calculus? Yah but he's working toward his license.

When are our corn fields gonna turn into rice fields to pay our outrageous school taxes........?

I agree with the first comment made. It's a huge opportunity for our children to learn about another culture. Why NOT Chinese? It's a fantastically interesting culture. Children are more able to replicate foreign tones and languages under the age of 9. They pick up other languages quickly and much more easily than adults. Why ruin it for them by being so small minded and petty?????

If they're coming here to learn how we operate, they probably speak English.

I think having our kids learn Chinese is a worthwile thing. Since most of our major corporations are bringing in Chinese people to learn how we operate before sending our jobs there someone will have to be able to communicate with them. I don't think it should be mandatory though and should be offered at other schools as well.

Twenty years ago, practically every education expert in the country said our children had to learn Japanese if they were going to be able to compete in the world marketplace. That didn't pan out as Japan has been in a recession since 1991. China is a communist country that supports rogue nations like Iran and North Korea. There is no guarantee that China is where the future lies.

I'm a little lost as to why Chinese is mandatory. I don't get why this is such a great thing for our children to learn. Okay I understand if Spanish was pushed super hard. But Chinese?

When did sanity and common sense leave our once fair and thriving city? Mandatory Chinese in third grade? Are you kidding me? Teach these young kids our national language, English, first! Wake up you dummies!

Chineese? I don't think so. Optional maybe but mandatory I would not stand for.

Why would someone see this program as a threat, instead of a tremendous opportunity for their child? Surely we want companies from Janesville to be able to do business with the largest economy outside the United States?