A World Experience Brought to Woodbury

Principal Aaron Harper says he’s often asked: Why teach Mandarin Chinese at the high school?

“I’ll turn it around on them—algebra was good enough in your day, but today you want to see kids in trig and calculus,” he said. “We really want to prepare kids for the 21st century and beyond.”

Harper, district Chinese teacher Elsa Pan and District 833 Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Rick Spicuzza traveled to China in December to get a sense of the culture and educational system in the Asian nation.

East Ridge secured a grant through the University of Minnesota’s Confucius Institute for the trip. One stipulation of the funds was for the school to work with Han Ban, the Chinese equivalent of the U of M’s program, to travel there and eventually host Chinese students and faculty in Woodbury.

While Spicuzza there are plenty of similarities among Chinese and American schools—a focus on academic rigor, preparing students for post-secondary education and “teenagers are teenagers”—the schools there are often competing for prestige and don't share best practices like U.S. institutions.

“It’s a proprietary secret,” Spicuzza said. “They don’t share with their fellow schools because they want to be a step above them.”

The trip helped the Woodbury delegation gain a greater understanding of the Chinese education system, but also the values of its students, Harper said. He recalled a lesson in which students there were asked to raise their hands when a topic came up that they valued most. Many students were concerned with jobs and happiness, while Harper said he raised his hand at the word “freedom.” Later, while speaking with the students, he talked with them about how life’s opportunities stem from the importance of liberty in the U.S., and recounted the history of slavery in America.

Five of 14 elementary schools in the South Washington County School District teach Mandarin Chinese, part of a growing curriculum that now offers the language in all four middle schools in addition to both East Ridge and high schools.

District 833 has placed a greater emphasis on world languages in recenty years, Spicuzza said. Until a couple of years ago, there was no Chinese offered at middle schools, though the program was available at the elementary and high school levels, which he called a “doughnut hole” in the curriculum.

“It’s like we were building a bridge to nowhere,” Spicuzza said. “That earlier exposure and investment is going to pay off.”

There are now 11 educators teaching Chinese to about 3,800 students in the district, according to figures Spicuzza provided to Woodbury Patch. The district wants students to experience a different culture through its language programs, he said, and that will be an ongoing mission for District 833 teachers.

“We have one of the most comprehensive, well-rounded programs in K-12,” he said. “It’s something that we see as an essential priority.”

With so many Chinese speaking English, Harper said it makes sense for students in the U.S. to study the language, especially considering the nation’s status as a growing world economic power.

“It’s a critical language of the world,” Harper said.