10/14/10

Native languages boosting student successes in SD

Excellent Dakota Midday on SDPB. Paul Guggenheimer interviewed South Dakota education secretary, Tom Oster and state director of Indian education, LuAnn Werdel, who stressed the importance of offering indigenous languages to meet the college preparatory foreign language requirement. ip has hammered on this for at least twenty years. Seeing it being implemented in South Dakota schools is remarkable.

3 comments:

caheidelberger said...

Good note, Larry! South Dakota could use boosts in all language education, native and foreign. What would you think of trying some Canadian-style official bilingualism and requiring Lakota language instruction in all K-12 schools?

larry kurtz said...

Absolutely, Cory.

When will South Dakota legislators like Kristi Noem and Don Kopp bury the hatchet, embrace pre-settlement history, and add First Nations language educators instead of drafting resolutions that include astrology as a factor in climate change?

Douglas said...

Tell me what is special about Lakota or Nakota or Dakota that would suggest it has any use whatsoever in the modern world.

If there are particular concepts in those languages that can't be expressed in our version of English, what are they?

The languages of math and science are more important than any other second language for anybody...except professionals of ethnic specialness riding their hobby horse bareback to gain wealth and influence for themselves.