Kirkwood speaks the language of learning
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008The following Home Base article is part of the Urban Living section, CL’s monthly focus on city home life. If you know of interesting events in your neighborhood, submit them to soapbox@creativeloafing.com or urbanliving@creativeloafing.com. We’re always on the lookout for cool homes to feature, too. So send us an e-mail today!
By Douglas L. Wood
Who can argue that strong schools don’t make a better neighborhood and a stronger city? While some choose private schools and others start charters, the Kirkwood community’s partnership with Atlanta Public Schools to implement the first K-12 Chinese language program in Georgia is just one example of how APS is willing and capable of engaging neighborhoods and enabling change.
NO RAIN ON THIS PARADE: Toomer Elementary students perform an umbrella dance at the opening ceremony of the Confucius Institute of Atlanta.
(Photo by www.alaneffphotography.com)
Mandarin is the world’s most spoken language, and by the time Kirkwood’s Toomer Elementary children graduate from college, China will be the No. 2 economy in the world. And since Chinese is a character-based language, learning it develops a different portion of the brain than a Romance-based language such as Spanish, and test scores tend to increase.
Members of the Kirkwood Neighborhood Organization, Principal Tonya Saunders at Toomer and Principal Andre Williams at Coan Middle School wrote a grant to the Georgia Department of Education requesting funds for a study on successful K-12 models of Chinese language instruction. A portion of the funding was used to conduct workshops for the Toomer PTA on what a Chinese curriculum would mean. From fall 2006 to spring 2007, a small team of parents, educators and community members visited programs in Chicago, the Washington, D.C. area, and Portland, Ore., and reported back to the community and other key players on the programs’ successes and struggles. (more…)
