Dave Porter
I had the opportunity this past weekend to interview Mr. David Porter, a local Portland activist for bilingual education. Dave has been working with the Oregon State Legislature to bring a greater focus on foreign languages to our schools, and his work heavily emphasizes Mandarin Chinese immersion programs. Download our podcast here, or hear it below:
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The podcast is around 30 minutes, 13.7 megs.
For those of you who are parents, I’m sure education is an important priority; I’ve never met a parent who has said that it wasn’t. My children are both too young for public school, but this interview was a wake-up call for me to start learning and getting involved. One’s children’s teachers may teach, but we all have to take responsibility for improving our schools.
What I like most about Dave’s approach is that it’s hands-on. He’s working with the government to promote and fund Mandarin programs because he believes Sino-American communication is going to be an important skill in the future. I was resigned to the idea that a bilingual education would require private school tuition, and that may still be the case, but at the same time, we shouldn’t settle for the idea that public schools must necessarily provide a lesser education. I think schools need to do more to break out of the Eurocentric, Euro-linguistic mindset, and I think it’s important that schools do more to ensure that our students will be able to communicate on a global level. Languages reflect cultures, and they reflect mindsets. There’s no better way to understand a people or a culture than through the language. I agree with what Dave is doing, and I look forward to his future efforts to bring Mandarin to Portland schools.
My readership is evenly split between Oregon, California, and New York(1/3, 1/3, 1/3), and I also have a significant number of regulars from Washington and Illinois. So here are some questions when listening to the podcast:
1. What are your views on bilingual education? (I’ve blogged about charter schools before, but this may be different. Or not.)
2. For parents, how have you become involved (or planned to become involved) with your children’s education?
3. Dave’s question: Are there public immersion schools where you live? Have you had any experience with them?
Links:
www.zachkatagiri.com (our awesome music)
http://daveporter.typepad.com/ (Dave’s Global Strategies Blog)
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I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
Cool podcast, Byron – and thanks for the shout out for the music!
Thanks, Zach!