The PHurrowed Brow

(written as a column on behalf of the D’Evelyn Steering Committee)

D’Evelyn’s Founders offered a comprehensive plan for fostering students into intellectual and civic adulthood. A D’Evelyn graduate will, by design, have a meaningful grasp of science, math, literature, and the varied forces that shape and affect human actions and interactions, and use knowledge and sophisticated thought to lead their lives for the better. A truly unique requirement for graduation (unique as far as Jeffco Schools are concerned) is the three-year minimum for study of a second language. Elsewhere in this issue you will read of the excellence of our language programs, but as part of Steering Committee responsibilities to foster understanding of our program I here address the purpose for requiring study of a foreign language.

The Founders saw intellectual, social, economic and personal benefits to learning the language and culture of other peoples:

We believe that knowledge of at least one foreign language and its culture greatly expands one’s appreciation of the world in which we live. This knowledge also helps the student appreciate the English language and American culture. Studying a foreign language enhances the development of vocabulary, spelling, reading, and comprehension of oral and written expression in the student’s own language. Study of foreign language is essential in a world in which international trade and travel are a reality. (D’Evelyn Program Document, p. 10)

One will immediately note the study of a foreign language enhances skills that students develop in our Social Studies and English courses and uniquely prepares the individual for skilled participation in the great conversations that occur both within our nation and with other nations of the world. Graduates serving our country in the military, those building America’s economic power through work in finance, industry, and trade, and travelers whose humanitarian work or leisure take them abroad clearly function at a higher level when linguistically and culturally competent. At home, we are better people, too, when we have enhanced our capacities to understand and evaluate cultural norms through more than a single lens. We can find much to emulate in the values of other cultures, and gain empathy for the challenges that immigrants may face in acquiring English. In all settings our ability to communicate rises to a higher level when we master the dynamic interconnection between thought and language, a mastery which truly only develops outside the comfort zone of one’s native tongue.

The Founders mandated the scope of our foreign language courses at every level:

• knowledge and understanding of the associated culture and literature
• understanding, reading, speaking, and writing the language
• expanding vocabulary
• using correct grammar and word order.

Study for one or two years is insufficient for a secondary student to gain sufficient experience with these skills. Accordingly we operate with the goal that “the requirement of three years of the same foreign language will allow the student to achieve some proficiency in the chosen language.” (Program Document, p. 10) Several practical considerations affect the timing of language study. Most four-year colleges only admit students who have two years of foreign language study on their transcripts, and thus D’Evelyn allows fulfillment of its requirement to begin in 8^th, not 7^th grade. Additionally, many selective universities require their admitted students to take foreign language courses or to demonstrate proficiency through a challenging assessment. A student without academic experience for three or more years effectively kills his or her chances of performing well in the language in college. Our five-year programs in Latin, Spanish, and French allow students aiming for the highest post-secondary targets to hit them after taking the Advanced Placement course in the chosen language before graduation. After three, four or five years, our students’ language study enables them  to make more of this interconnected multilingual world.