Biliteracy Is An Achievable Advantage

“No hablo espanol.”  “Je ne parle francais.”  “I do not speak your language (fill in the language).”  If these statements are true, you may be a pilgrim in a foreign land even in your own nation or community.  The value of interpersonal communication remains incontrovertible and communicating in a common language is essential.  Our trending away from second and third language instruction in school contradicts what we know about our world and the importance of personal communication.  Consider the Seal of Biliteracy as a next school district goal for educating our children to thrive in tomorrow’s world.

More than 400 different languages are spoken in the United States today.  English, Spanish, and Chinese are the most prevalent; English being our nation’s unofficial language.  Unofficial language, yes.  The United States does not have an official language.  And, there are regions and communities of our country where non-English languages are commonly spoken among recent and generations of immigrants.  By the way, recall that all non-Indigenous languages immigrated to our country, including the English language. 

One solution is to obstinately hold to an English only requirement.  Speak to no one who does not speak English.  In the presence of growing numbers of persons whose first language is not English, this may be counterproductive and purposefully obstructive.

Another solution is to grow our capacity for second language learning.  Second languages include both spoken and signed languages.

The WI DPI Seal of Biliteracy application details how a variety of language acquisition programs can result in our recognizing students who demonstrate proficiency in a second or in multiple languages.  Administratively, it is important to note that biliteracy is a proficiency that can be attained both in school and out of school – assessment indicates attainment not the source of learning.

https://dpi.wi.gov/english-learners/wi-seal-of-biliteracy

For schools with traditional world language instruction, awarding a Seal to high school graduates can be a tangible reward that assists students and families to understand the value of persisting in second language proficiency.  The Seal is a recognition of a graduate’s capacity to communicate with non-English speakers that has value in post-high school education and career pathways.  Along with academic knowledge and skill sets, the ability to speak and communicate in other languages is a very real addition to a graduate’s resume’.

Many secondary students discontinue classes in a second language in favor of a course they believe will provide more post-high advantage or, given their course load, may be easier.  The Seal of Biliteracy can give students more motivation to complete a third or fourth or fifth year of a world language in school.

Learning a second or third language does not stop once a student graduates.  There are beaucoup online apps and programs that instruct a person in learning other languages.  There is, however, a time in life when one’s language acquisition is more flexible and efficient; later in life is not that time.  The earlier one starts learning a second language the better and beginning prior to age 6 or 7 is best.  The young brain uses all seven senses to assist in language learning and learning multiple languages is natural for youth.  There is evidence that starting to learn another language gets to be more difficult after puberty.  Personality, including language, begins to coalesce into who a learner will be as an adult and preferences prevail.

As with many things in education, we know that being multilingual provides adults with personal and professional advantages.  As educators we know how to cause children to become multilingual.  We also know that creating these opportunities is our choice just as engaging in these opportunities is a student’s choice.  The Seal of Biliteracy is a clear pathway to giving children another educational advantage that will serve them well in life.

The School That Will Be Cannot Be The School That Was

The compelling push to return children to school assumes that the school they left is the school they return to.  It is not.  The push also assumes that school is the preferred place for children to be learners.   This assumption also is not fully valid.  Now, what?  The answer is our understanding that the school that is now is not the school that was last March and the school that will be this spring and next fall must reflect what pandemic education is teaching us.

A school day last March was a lot like every school day for the years before.  From every corner of the schoolhouse, one could hear voices of children and see active children.  Singing and playing instruments in the music rooms.  Running, jumping, throwing, and catching, and loud voices in the gym.  Groups sitting and talking at tables in the media center and sitting and eating in the cafeteria.  Children walking, mingling, talking, and laughing in the hallways.  Children in classes receiving teacher-provided instruction.  Children grouped everywhere.  Only the first sentence in this paragraph about school last March lives in our school this January.  The school our children are returning to is so much unlike the school they left. 

So, what.  In truth, there is a lot of “what”.  Our pandemic schools provide parents the choice to have their children attend school or be at-home learners.  The “what” is that almost 50% of children in our schools do NOT want to return to a school deep into pandemic protocols.  The school that is today is not the school children left and children may not choose to be back until their school is like the school they want to attend. 

It is more than a requirement that everyone must wear masks at school.  Class desks are socially distanced.  There is no small group work.  A teacher will not come to your desk to give personal attention and help.  Kids can’t use their lockers or see their friends in the hallway.  Lunch is served in bags in classrooms.  No choral singing, no plays on stage, and no band or orchestra concerts.  No large groups at recess.  To diminish contact between children and teachers, some classes that were 50 minutes are now three hours long and a child only attends two very long classes each day.  No thanks, some children say.

A second understanding about then and now informs us that some children never were happy attending the school that was.  Our historic model of school wants children to be extroverts, sharers, talkers, socializers, and willing to be around and with classmates five days a week for 180 school days.  Our academic, activity, arts, and athletics life in school constantly requires children to be with other children.  Collaboration and group participation are indirectly part of our educational evaluation processes.  Children who do not mix well often did not prosper in the school that was.  Consider a child you knew to be highly introverted and how well that child prospered in the school that was.  Do you see that child today in the school that is?  Not with pandemic choice.  The option to be an at-home learner has become the schooling of choice for a significant number of children.  They no longer are stressed by the demands to socialize and cooperate and collaborate.  These children are prospering as at-home learning because they are happier at home than at school. 

On the other hand, the need for personal and private time does not resonate with all children.  Just as many children prefer and require the social life of school.  Our new understanding is this: if our real interest is meeting the educational needs of all children, then at-home learning is how we should meet the needs of some children in the school that will be.  Not all, but some require a  choice of where to learn.

This should be no surprise to adults.  Consider how many of us are now working from home.  Note the use of words.  Learning at home and working from home.  Interesting.  The office no longer is required for every kind of work and working from home is now and will continue to be a way of life in many businesses.  The business model changed and adults learned to prosper in this way of doing their work.  If it is good for some adults, why wouldn’t it be good for some students?

The school that will be should not be like the school that was.  The pandemic has wrung out a number of our prior assumptions about schooling and beliefs of what is best schooling for all children.  The school that we provide and ask children to attend today, the school that is, will and must further evolve into the school that will be.  If that future school reflects all that we have learned in the Time of COVID, it will not be the school that was.