MORGANTOWN — The two people engrossed in conservation a few summers back at Mylan Park Elementary School were actually speaking the language of the levy.
As in, the excess levy for Monongalia County schools. The levy, which funds all those extras the district is known for, such as foreign language instruction, is again up for renewal.
Election Day is Saturday at polls across the country will be open from 6:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m.
But back to that conversation. It was between a grade-schooler and a college professor, and it was in Mandarin.
In an uncertain world, a shared language begets social awareness and cultural understanding.
And in Monongalia County’s school district, students get an early linguistic start in the building of both.
Remedial courses in exploratory Chinese or Spanish are offered in elementary school.
Middle-schoolers can draw from French, Spanish, Chinese and Italian offerings.
Chinese, German, Italian, French and Spanish are on the high school syllabus for the picking.
That’s all courtesy of the aforementioned excess levy for the school district, which voters here have traditionally (and decisively, in most outings to the polls) passed – since it was first fronted in 1973.
The district is also known for its Chinese immersion camp in summer, where that exchange from above took place.
“All of this is why our kids are so well-prepared,” said Nancy Walker, Mon’s longtime Board of Education incumbent and current BOE president.
She’s referring to the legions of county graduates who have gone on the Ivy League schools, where they have competed with their counterparts from affluent suburban districts.
Were it not for the excess levy, foreign language instruction would be on course schedules in Mon – just not as much of it.
State code (and state Board of Education policy) calls for the introduction a language in 6th grade, followed by additional instruction in grade 7 and 8.
Debbie Harrison, who coordinates foreign language instruction for the state Department of Education and taught high school Spanish for 28 years in the state, appreciates the levy-fueled delves into such study.
Especially the Chinese immersion camp in Mon County, she said.
It’s amazing, she said, how international diplomacy by way of conversation can be created – just by asking someone, in his language, how his day is going.
“When you learn a language, and especially when you become fluent in it, that just changes the way you look at everything.”
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