LETTER: Vote ‘yes’ but ask to keep World Language program
May 17, 2024To the Community:
I am writing in support of the Elementary World Language Program in the Harwood Unified Union School District. I don’t live in the HUUSD, so I am not able to vote on the upcoming budget, but I have worked in this community for 8 years.
As someone who works closely with the French program at Brookside Primary School, I want to express how devastating these cuts will be to the students in our school community. I remember before we had World Language at Brookside and I have seen the positive impacts of learning not just a different language, but also information about different cultures and geography.
In the past, our elementary classroom teachers have utilized our French teacher to help expand the social studies curriculum by incorporating language, culture, music and more, so that students are truly immersed in learning about different places in the world.
As a music teacher, I have had the pleasure of collaborating with the French teacher to reinforce French vocabulary through songs, dances and rhymes. Students develop a deeper understanding of the material when they see the learning translate from subject to subject.
As our world grows smaller and we prepare to engage with a more diverse population of the future, we need to ensure that our students have the skills to communicate and collaborate with all kinds of people and that starts with their exposure to learning about other cultures as young as elementary school. Many of the problems we see in our world related to prejudice and racism can be mitigated by educating young students about the fact that people show up in our world in many different ways and there is no right or wrong way to live.
It is by embracing opportunities such as a World Language program that we take an active role in dismantling the oppressive systems that impact so many within our society.
There are many smart and creative people involved in the decision to make certain cuts to the HUUSD budget. I recognize the difficulty in making these decisions, but there are many ways to get to the number for the budget in scenario 4 now on the ballot. If one of the priorities in this district is diversity, equity and inclusion, Elementary World Language must continue, and cuts should be made somewhere else.
I urge the voters to vote yes on the next budget to reduce even more cuts, and help put pressure on the district and the school board to reinstate Elementary World Language for the 2024-25 school year.
Respectfully,
Lizzy Palumbo
Plainfield