Recently I wrote about Cresskill’s new teacher of Chinese, part of a cooperation between American school districts, the College Board, and the government of China. It appears that the idea of teaching Chinese as a second language is catching on here in Bergen County.
Saddle River is the latest district to implement a course in Mandarin Chinese for students. As in Cresskill, students are starting young, Pre-K thorough Grade 2. The reason is that this is the age when students are more likely to learn and retain a new language, as opposed to later years.
Mandarin Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world.
Ridgewood High School has offered a course in Mandarin for 20 years. This was originally set up with grant money at a time when no one else was paying attention to the languages that would be important in the 21
st century.