LTUSD expanding two-way immersion program
The class of 2019 is dictating, to some extent, the curriculum that is being offered in Lake Tahoe Unified School District.
Some of today’s fifth-graders back in 2007 were the first two-way immersion class at Bijou Community School.
What started as a parent movement led by Kathy Haven turned into a much sought-after program. Parents have since lined up to get their child enrolled in the program that has a goal of teaching students in Spanish and English.
But when it started it was just supposed to be a Bijou offering. Since the inception of the program there have been 11 TWI classes.
On March 12, the school board voted to expand the program to South Tahoe Middle and High schools. The first class will be in middle school in the fall.
To expand the program a teacher will need to be hired to teach a social science class in Spanish. In the following two years a native Spanish 1 class will be added at STMS.
At the high school by the time these students arrive there will be several course offerings taught in the TWI format for lab science, history-social science, and visual and performing arts.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
Teach your kid Chinese if you want to benefit them for the Chinese future. This school board is wacked and just too PC to the detriment of the communities children and America’s future. At least they are on the leading edge of America’s decline through their asinine policies. Hating America is sure in vogue but at least the board feels so virteous and smug.
Oh well, only our country’s future is at stake.
Just think how well Spanish speaking countries are doing.
OK, lay the comments on PCer’s and bleeding hearts.
Step out of the dark ages sir. Education and multi lingualism is about as American as it gets. We are a melting pot, remember. My son is in 4th grade TWI and what a honor it has been. This program is a reality and these children will have a wonderful advantage when they reach college. I hope you will open your mind and embrace education of this kind.
I applaud LTUSD for their expansion of this excellent program. I only wish it had been available when I was school age!
I feel sorry for you Lisa. What advantage will your son have when he reaches college? Majoring in ethnic studies? Reading science books in Spanish not German or English? Receiving government handouts because he speaks Spanish?
Give me a break and thanks for swallowing the bait.
Dont feed the troll folks.
I hear they’re teaching that new fangled socialist-Kenyan mathematics too sam… such as, bigotry=ignorance squared.
The opportunity for our kids to come out of LTUSD biliterate and bilingual is a gift that will enhance their entire lives. Kudos to the school board for approving the expansion of this program.
Congratulations LTUSD for expanding the TWI. What a great opportunity for our students. The best time for learning a second language is when you are young. The research shows that being bilingual (in any 2 languages) offers a multitude of advantages – not just the ability to speak to another group of people. The brain develops in ways that monolingual brains do not. Skills and facilities expand and learning increases.
These lucky students will definitely have an advantage in the future and there is absolutely nothing subversive or anti American about it. Way to go Bijou, STMS and LTUSD!!
Maybe if I started drinking the Kool-Aid my mind wouild also become addle like the above. Because you want to believe something doesn’t make it true.
Sorry Sam, not even drinking the kool-aid will keep you from being a small minded, uni-lingual, ugly American.
Excellent job LTUSD! The farther we travel along the road to creating multilingual students, the closer we will be to catching up with many other nations education systems that have by-passed ours.
Bigger picture, have you looked in the mirror lately to see why America’s future is bleak if not hopeless?
No Sam, I look in the mirror and see a very bright future for this nation! And I’ve raised my children to perpetuate the brightness!
OK, that brightness you see in the tunnel is the train speeding your way. I do wish you and your offspring the best inspite of the handwriting on the wall. BTW, I am still waiting for the answers as to why speaking Spanish will make life better. That goes for Bijou Bill and all other proponents of TWI. Any disadvantages besides wasting class time. And Virginia, is that the same STMS where a few years back and maybe currently, 25% of the student body achieved a GPA of 3.5 or better and 10% achieved a straight A average? An amazing genius cluster is it not. Who are you kidding?
Everyone with kids wants better future than their parents had,but there’s many factors that make this new generation hard to equal what’s happened and will get even harder for the new kids on the block with or with out a good schooling.
America’s federal debt-to-GDP ratio has more than doubled from 28 percent to 62 percent since 1970, and the borrowing has benefited boomers far more than folks my age. A majority of boomers want no part of paying that debt off through higher taxes or reduced benefits: A recent Pew poll found “little appetite [among that age group] for debt-reduction proposals that will take a bite out of their pocketbooks.”
And boomers seem to know that the future won’t be brighter for Max and his friends. Nationwide, optimism that today’s youth will fare better than their parents is down from a peak of 71 percent a decade ago to 44 percent today, the lowest level since 1983, according to Gallup. Pessimism is highest among–you guessed it–baby boomers.
How could the members of a generation so willing to lecture everyone else on personal responsibility not recognize, even at this stage in their lives, their collective responsibility for ending this mess?
I truly think with the debt that’s so huge even God has lost his will to control the inflation that will one day doom the entire world ablity to share and love each other.
Well Sam, learning a foreign language increases overall language abilities. There are no disadvantages.
Glad to see LTUSD is moving forward with its multilinguaul programs. I took Spanish at the intermediate school and 3 years of German at STHS. Both were very rewarding although a bit difficult. I was not the best student and that’s putting it mildly.
If you have a kid in school encourage him / her to learn a second language. They won’t regret it. OLS
Sam, I have an answer for ya:
Dr. Kevorkian.
Since no one wants to answer my germaine questions, I presume to much class time was taken away from reading comprehension. I took three years of French. Parlez vous francais? Or better yet, from the hit song many years ago, “Voulez vous couchez avec moi?” A waste of time that could have been better used for math, chemistry, physics, history, English, or sports. English language skills are continuing to deteriorate so why spend time learning a foreign tongue.Our educrats are continuing to dumb down America’s future with their nonsensical, unrealistic, and theoretical approach to education. Just look at test scores that are moribund or going backwards in spite of bushels of money spent and Taj Mahals for schools. And remember we are discussing TWBI, oh excuse me, now known as the more PC TWI.
I understand the reason for teaching in a second language. The U. S. will become Hispanic dominate by 2043 or so. I believe the second language should be mathematics. We as a country have fallen so far behind in that area it is startling. Compare our test scores against other countries. We fall way short. We have the ability to communicate with different languages in the palms of our hands. The iTranslate app on your smartphone will do that for you. Being able to do the calculations to build that app is where our focus with education should be.
“English language skills are continuing to deteriorate so why spend time learning a foreign tongue.”
Because learning a foreign language increases overall language abilities in their native language….
It does. It isn’t theoretical, it is proven. Do you actually want test scores to increase? You say you want to, and don’t support something that is significant.
Strong scientific research, not bigotry or ignorance are at the roots of bilingual and foreign language learning. The brain benefits from using different pathways for learning.Bilingual/foreign language learning is the norm in many countries who are far ahead of us in student achievement.
And to clarify: math, science, etc.time is not sacrificed for a language course. Those classes are taught in that second language.
Another fact is that those who become bilingual are more open to and find it easier to learn more languages, certainly an advantage in business, government and diplomacy among other areas. Kudos to LTUSD.