Article by Commissioner of Education Earl James McGrath, Foreign Language Study in American Schools: Should It Be Extended?
Images (7)
Document
| id |
id
73984920
|
|---|---|
| contentType |
contentType
document
|
| source |
source
import
|
Source image fields (6)
Extracted text
OCR Page 1 of 7FORMIGN LANGUAGES STUDY IN AXERICAT SCHOOLS
Should It Be Ixtended?
Farl J. KoGrath
U. S. Commissioner of Iducation
The problem of extending opportunity for the study of foreign
languages in the American school system has been the subject of much
discussion in recent months. While it is true that instruction in
foreign tongues has been available in most communities in the United
States for a long time, such instruction has usually been offered only
in high schools or in colleges and universities -- that is, at an age
level at which spoken language is learned with relative difficulty.
For the average citisen the basic consideration in a discussion
of language study today is our vorld position as a nation. Our leader-
ship in the United Nations Organization, our offorts through the North
Atlantic Treaty Organisation to jein free nations in resisting totali-
tarian aggression, our intellectual and cultural activities in connection
with UNESCO, our technical assistance under the Point IV agreements
and the Mutual Security Agency, our work in the Organisation of American
States, our Fulbright program for the exchange of teachers and tudents --
all these activities and a host of others like them make our position
of international responsibility and leadership abundantly clear;. These
international involvements, combined with the development of rapid
telephone and radio communication and rapid transportation by air, now
place us politically, physically, and socially in contiguous relationships
with all parts of the vorld. The activities of our national and personal
lives affect, and are affected by, people in the far corners of the globe.
Truly we are living in one world - one in which all of us must live
Sent to Mr. Judah Lapson Hebrew Culture Service Committee,
1776 Broadway, New York 19", N.Y. for publication in Megillot.
Relations
belongs_to