tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17080558.post115098928997329604..comments2024-03-20T03:54:53.101-05:00Comments on SpaceBeagle: Freedom FriesToddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05817043549668896479noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17080558.post-1159809723020571052006-10-02T12:22:00.000-05:002006-10-02T12:22:00.000-05:00You can visit my blog, L'toile du Nord (cloth of t...You can visit my blog, L'toile du Nord (cloth of the north, with this spelling - star of the north is spelt differently) for occasional comments on Yinghua Academy, the new 100% Chinese immersion (in Mandarin) charter school over in St. Paul.<BR/><BR/>My older son is now attending the school, so occasionally I will be posting regarding it, as well as my adventures in gardening (I started YAG, the Yinghua Academy Gardeners, community garden there in the late summer, http://yagardeners.blogspot.com).<BR/><BR/>This is a school designed, in large part, to be able to address the growing global need for more Chinese-speakers/writer/etc.<BR/><BR/>However, in many ways it seems to be a release valve for those in the predominantly-white communities around the Twin Cities who have adopted Chinese daughters.<BR/><BR/>I did not - my husband is Chinese and I am mainly Norwegian-bred Minnesotan - and there are some other mixed-race families associated with the school. There are even a number of completely non-Asian families associated with the school, and I believe the non-adoptive families will eventually comprise a large part of the school's population, once we get past the first 2-3 years and it expands towards it goal of K-8 grades.<BR/><BR/>Currently YA is K-3, with grades 2/3 being combined (small class size), and using English most of the day with a Chinese language teacher coming in each day for language class - we are told this is to maintain good testing levels for those children who are almost up for the state tests.<BR/><BR/>It's too bad, really: Thanks to "No Child Left Behind" we again have children being left behind by a year of immersion schooling, since the current 2nd graders won't have immersion until next year, and the same for the 3rd graders (not until they're in 4th grade).<BR/><BR/>But that's also bureaucracy for you.<BR/><BR/>My son continues to build on his Chinese (we have attempted to teach our children some Mandarin, difficult since I barely know any, my husband primarily speaks English and Cantonese, and there isn't much out there for small children in the way of Mandarin language tools/dvd's/tapes/etc.).<BR/><BR/>I do wonder, though, what the standard American response is to your idea of a cancer-research "magnate" school. Would this be applauded here, as the city in China which only has one business, that of teaching children kung fu is? That city survives because those that achieve the certification from one of the elite schools there can get jobs, in martial arts coaching, the military and the police - and graduates thereby get job security, virtually for life.<BR/><BR/>Would that kind of forward-thinking for our children, putting them into a "journeyman" program essentially, be acceptable here, especially in Minnesota?<BR/><BR/>My husband, had he stayed in New York, would have continued in the computers-oriented school he attended there - and he had to test-into it, because they didn't take those with poor testing scores - so I know that the concept is here in the States. Those specialty schools in NY are geared to getting students into the big Ivy League schools, and that almost promises you job security right there.<BR/><BR/>But in Minnesota??<BR/><BR/>I doubt it would be considered acceptable, "robbing the children of their childhoods" and such.<BR/><BR/>But if we don't prepare them to hold down a job, of whatever sort, how can they survive as adults? And, with our continuing rise in senior-age citizens, how are we going to survive if our children are not financially able to supplement if not directly support our lifestyles when we are aged?<BR/><BR/><I>~ bb</I>butterflybutterflyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11313111705278210958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17080558.post-1151029513138039522006-06-22T21:25:00.000-05:002006-06-22T21:25:00.000-05:00Will this school teach the children the proper way...Will this school teach the children the proper way to wave a white flag?Jeff Deiteringhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09083122110139952278noreply@blogger.com