School Board Members

On Monday night we had two school board members come to speak to us about their role in the school. I guess there were just a few things that popped out at me, one being that it seems that the Decorah School District as a whole really sees NCLB as a positive thing. We heard that from the Principle at the Elementary School and the Associate Principle the week before, and now we heard the same thing from the School Board Members. They all keep saying it's the attitude you have about it, and I agree. You can not like it and complain about it all the time, or you can accept it for what it is, and look at the positives. It's a matter of seeing the glass half full or half empty- you decide.
I also like the part of the discussion when we started getting into foreign languages. I am a firm believer that we, being the U.S., should have to learn some other languages of the world. I think it is ridiculous that some people just expect everyone else to learn English so we can communicate effectively. There are different parts of the brain that are at work when you learn another foreign language too. I also think that we should start teaching our students in Elementary School Spanish or Mandarin-Chinese, because it is a lot easier to learn another language or two when you are younger. I know this for a fact, because I started learning Spanish in Middle School (I wish I could have started sooner), and now in college as a Spanish major I took French for "fun". It is a lot harder to learn French, and I think that part of that is because my brain already depends on English and Spanish for everything, so throwing French in the mix is just really hard for my brain to grasp. So we need to encourage students early to learn foreign languages if we want to survive globally, and keep up with other countries like China and India.