What is last shall be first

One of the most important components of a global economy is the ability to communicate with other countries.  The U.S. has really not tried hard at making communication something of a priority in the past.  It has taken the position that English is a lingua franca and forced others to learn English in order to trade with us.

And what has been the offshoot of that position?  India has long spoken English since it was  a colony of Great Britain, so millions of people there have grown up with English.  Indians usually learn their regional tongue, English, and Hindi.  So they are trilingual at least.  China, also has sent many students to the U.S. to learn English, and now have made a way for English speakers to teach English in their schools.  They have an equal number of English speakers as the U.S. as a result.

But, the U.S. has decided to give away its golden key to world dominance, its debt.  That makes trading with other countries, the countries holding its debt, rather mandatory rather than voluntary.  With this decision, comes the need now to communicate with other countries like China, in their own language.

Enter the need for Americans to know Chinese, Hindi, and other languages.

Nearly everyday I see job offerings for those who know Farsi, Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish.  Some are really nice-paying jobs, with the CIA for example, while others are merely for part-time jobs translating documents received from other countries.  This need will only continue and grow.  In the meantime, has the U.S. public schools made any alteration on the status of foreign languages?  Absolutely not.

In a curriculum designed to reflect the needs of the 21st century, technology schools need to dominate the change, but a close second should be the need to communicate with those who could bring the U.S. economy to its knees.  Language schools as a part of a bigger program school of communication or language schools with programs geared to reflect different parts of the world and their cultures, needs to be a close second to technology.

Lingua francas of the past have lasted long periods of time.  Latin was the most recent and most long lasting, about 1000 years.  English is dominant now and has been for about the last 300 years, but everything moves much faster than it used to.  So, too, the life cycle of English will meet its demise sooner than Latin.  Lingua francas are the languages of superpower countries for a time.  In a global economy, it's hard to predict which language will rise to the top.  But, with the rise of a global economy come some commensurate needs.  One of those is a world or globally used language.  English will probably not retain its dominance if its economy is not the dominant one.  The global language to come might even be a new language altogether, like Esperanza, or it could be a mixture of languages contributing to one language.  Either way, communication with the world will take a priority in this new environment.

When reformers speak of a new curriculum, that's what they mean, not a reordering of the old curriculum.  It's a new path for a new world.  The schools should exist for this new world and offer the tools that help to compete well in it.