Statement by Commissioner of Education Earl James McGrath, The Changing Place of Languages in American Life

THE CHANGING PLACE OF LANGUAGES IN AMERICAN LIFE* I am convinced that one of the big tasks ahead for American schools, in view of the role which the United States is called upon to play in world affairs, is to do a better job of teaching foreign languages. It is a thorny problem, because so many languages are important for our international relations Several months ago I proposed to a national conference of educators in the foreign language field that we consider these three points: First--That the United States is in a position of world leadership today Second--That if we are to discharge our obligations as a world leadership Nation wisely and well, our citizens must understand other peoples and other cultures. Third--That to gain such understanding, many Americans must command a knowledge of one or more foreign langúages; and that if children are to acquire a freally useful mastery of a second language, our school system must provide opportunity, beginning in the early grades, for many children to study other tongues. No proposal I have made as U. S. Commissioner of Education has met with such favor, nationally and internationally. We are no longer a geographically isolated Nation . For example, while 660,000 Americans traveled abroad in the first five years after World War I, more than twice that number--over 1,330,000 traveled in foreign countries from 1948. to 1952. Each of these utilized or wasted precious opportunities to interpret the aspirations and motives of our people; each of them brought home a helpful or a distorted understanding of the people he met. * By Earl James McGrath, U. S. Commissioner of Education, Federal Security Agency, Washington, D. C., to the International News Service, January 18, 1953.