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Schools will be speaking a new language

board votes to include Chinese

By Britt Combs | The McDowell News

Published: October 20, 2009

The jobs of the future might well depend on speaking the new language of business and money. McDowell County public school students will get to learn Chinese if the administration's plans pan out.

The School Board agreed to accept the services of two or possibly three teachers of the Mandarin dialect of Chinese, to be funded by The Center for International Understanding (CIU) of UNC Chapel Hill.

The CIU has been involved in many projects with McDowell schools for several years now, and Superintendent Ira Trollinger is a consistent advocate of "international studies" taking a prominent place in school.

At the board's regular meeting for October on Monday evening, he said the CIU had offered to pay the salaries for two or three teachers for three years. This is, Trollinger said, the equivalent to a grant of $300,000 or $400,000.

"The only catch," he said, "was that they wanted some of us to return to China for a conference in December."

The CIU has agreed to fund most of the travel expenses for the three representatives from McDowell: Trollinger, Associate Superintendent Mike Murray and Board Chairwoman Priscilla Owenby. The school system will have to pay $700 for each, or a total of $2,100.

That, said Trollinger, is a very small price to pay for the full-time services of two or three teachers for three years.

Board Member Kay Sinclair expressed some objections, prefacing her remarks by saying that she was "playing devil's advocate."

"I believe in international understanding," she stated. "But why do we want to speak Chinese? Why are we going to a communist country to bring teachers here to teach our children?"

The economy is in crisis, she added, and teachers are packing lunches to give out to students who show up empty-handed.

"Is there really a need to teach this now?" Sinclair asked.

Trollinger compared ignoring Chinese ascendancy in global business and finance to "sticking our heads in the sand."

"If I find a way to invest $3,000 and get $300,000 in services, I will recommend it every time," the superintendent stated.

Pressing her objections, Sinclair asked if there was room to add classes.

"Where are we going to put this," she asked, "since we don't have any more rooms? Is this the start of another push for a new school?"

Trollinger answered that the administration had never envisioned international studies as part of the proposed magnet school, that the magnet school proposal was targeted exclusively at trades and technical training.

Board Member Mark Cauthen said adding Chinese language studies could be seen as "taking our eye off the ball."

"We have half the students in our high school barely proficient in English," he said. Perhaps resources should be dedicated to getting those students to improve their English skills, rather than adding another course of study.

Supporting Cauthen's point, Sinclair said that McDowell County Public Schools are not a university; that the needs of McDowell students should be kept in mind.

"I agree, it's going to be a necessity (to be conversant with Chinese in the future) but is that time right now?" she asked.

Trollinger said vague plans for the future often never pan out.

Owenby stated that the opportunity to learn such an important language -- one so rarely offered in public schools -- was a step to a strong economic and cultural future for McDowell. When she was in school, she had to take two years of French. And being multi-lingual is much more important today.

Sinclair concluded by saying that the kids who would opt for the Chinese classes would tend to be college bound students who could study that sort of thing in college. She said the idea would not sit well with parents in McDowell, many of whom lost jobs to Chinese competition.

"We're going to have people marching around with signs out front," she said.

Cauthen said that a second trip to China for administrators would be viewed negatively by taxpayers. He was alluding to an earlier trip to China this year by Trollinger and Assistant Superintendent Becky Pearson.

Board Member Randy Williams said the global economy is not going away and Chinese fluency could mean a distinct advantage in the workplace. In three years, he said, the recession could be over, and it would be good to have such a program in place.

Board member Terry English said even if Chinese was not immediately useful in local conversation, the process of learning a language stimulates the brain to work more efficiently in all subject areas.

Trollinger said one teacher would almost certainly go to East Junior High, as that school has a "sister school" in China. He said he hopes to get three teachers, so they could teach at McDowell High School and both junior highs.

He added that people resent jobs going to China, but jobs would be more likely to stay in America if Chinese businessmen and industrialists could communicate with American workers.

Board Member Lynn Greene said the expense of sending three administrators to China was almost too miniscule to consider.

"We spent $45,000 or $50,000 on the baseball field. Compare that to this small investment," he said.

Board Member Brian Piercy said it was vital to take the long view. Even if the system were not in the position to take over funding the program in three years, it would be good to have for the time it's available, possibly giving a few students a leg up in business.

"Some people will have a problem with it," he said, "but if we have to spend a little to educate children, we have to do it."

Trollinger said he had accepted the offer, due to the CIU's deadline last week. He asked the board to ratify his acceptance or instruct him to call back and rescind it.

A divided board accepted the CIU's offer by a 5-3 vote, with Sinclair, Cauthen and Board Member Dewey Rayburn voting against.