Westborough plans to begin offering Mandarin
By Ken Powers Community Reporter

Westborough - Barring an 11th-hour change of direction, Westborough schools will offer Mandarin as a foreign language curriculum option to its students beginning in the 2008-2009 academic year.

The School Committee received a final presentation on Mandarin from the Foreign Language Task Force at its Feb. 27 meeting and all the committee members spoke favorably about adding the language to the curriculum. A formal vote on the proposal was expected to be taken at the March 5 School Committee meeting.

Mandarin will join French, Spanish and Latin as foreign languages off ered by the school district to students in grades seven through 12.

"This is a huge deal. This is a change in foreign language strategy," School Committee Chair Rod Jané said. "The world has changed dramatically in the last 50 years, but most schools have not changed their foreign language curriculum in at least that long."

Jané, a proponent of the move, vowed that the school district's commitment to the addition of Mandarin to its curriculum would be for the long haul.

"I think that's part of the reason that we've taken our time and done such an extensive study on the matter," Jané said. "This is not going to be a decision by the School Committee … like sticking your toe in the pool to see if you like the temperature of the water. If we go in on this, and I certainly think we should, then we're going to go all in on it."

Superintendent of Schools Anne Towle said the decision to consider off ering Mandarin as a foreign language option shows how schools need to keep up with the ways the world is changing them.

"Our economy and our world are changing dramatically," Towle said. "It's incumbent on us to make sure we are preparing our children for those changes."

Adopting Mandarin is in line with school district's goal of providing its student with a global education, according to Shelly McCormick-Lane, a Latin teacher and the World Language Department head at the High School. She is also a member of the task force.

McCormick-Lane said adding the program in the fall with such short notice will be a difficult process, given that scheduling will have to be arranged and a teacher hired.

Funding the program is also an issue and Jané urged the district to apply for any and all grants that could help fund the curriculum.

The recommendation of the task force is that Mandarin be phased in and be off ered to seventh-graders beginning next year, and then adding a grade level each year until it is available to all in grades seven through 12. In addition, the task force recommended that it be off ered, beginning next year, as an elective for High School students.

In a recent vote taken by the task force, seven of the 10 task force members present voted in favor of adding Mandarin to the curriculum. Area school districts that currently off er Mandarin in their curriculum include Shrewsbury and Grafton.

Adding Mandarin as a way to keep up with the changing global climate is an example that should be used to add other subjects as well, School Committee member Craig Harris said.

"I want us to strive to add new fields of study," Harris said. "I don't want us to just stand idly by … doing things the way they've always been done."