In which we thought we were home free
Posted By Barbara Lindsey on February 2, 2009
It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way.
When the Connecticut State Department of Education released its five year comprehensive education plan over a year ago it included, for the first time, a mandatory two-credit world language high school graduation requirement. Over the winter and spring of 2008 a series of open, town hall type meetings held throughout the state allowed the public to comment on the proposal. Language proponents made their voices heard in support of what would be a Connecticut first. Finally, state-level institutional recognition of the necessity of languages as part of a solid, 21st century K-12 core curriculum.
We thought we were home free.
Then, in October of 2008 an ad hoc committee charged with finalizing the plan eliminated the world language graduation requirement, public testimony by language educators notwithstanding. What to do now? Fortunately, our state’s language organization held its annual conference shortly thereafter and we were able to collect over two hundred signatures for a petition to reinstate the high school foreign language graduation requirement. But we had no other large gathering on our calendar at which we could easily collect more signatures. The plan would now head over to our state legislature for consideration when it reconvened in January. We needed to find a way to inform Connecticut residents of the change in the state’s education plan, broaden our base of supporters, and provide legislators, parents and business leaders with information about the necessity of a high school foreign language graduation requirement. And we had to do it all on the cheap—no lobbyists, no public relations firms, just a group of concerned volunteers. We didn’t have to look far for an example of the power of a grass roots, community-based initiative.
We kicked off our refocused efforts with an online petition. We wanted something that was free and easy to use; that could track our progress and provide for a way to collect and sort the results. As if that wasn’t enough, we also wanted a site that allowed signers to leave personal comments for our intended audience and a way for them to easily share the petition with their friends and contacts. Reading this 2006 post by techsoup was very helpful, and after researching the various options, we chose thepetitionsite.
One week after posting our petition we had over 400 signatures. Just a week after that and we reached 600. Those signatures and comments from our Connecticut residents will be delivered to our state’s legislative assembly when they convene to vote on this bill. Will we be successful? We don’t know yet. We do know, however, that our many voices will be heard. These statements won’t be buried under a pile of documents, gathering dust somewhere in some office. They won’t be seen by just this current crop of legislators. They have been shared with the world. Even if the site where they are currently hosted goes away, we will be able to take those signatures and comments and post them elsewhere. We can magnify their impact now and in the future.
But how will we keep this momentum going? How will we create a sense of shared purpose and provide updated information for parents, business leaders and legislators? Taking a cue from some great Nings like Cindy Kendall‘s MIWLA Connect, the Wisconsin World Language Assessment Ning and the Houston area H-Town Art Teachers Network we recently started our advocacy site, Languages for Life!. Our goal is to provide a forum to post events related to our legislative push, showcase state language programs and highlight language learning research. We must provide clear and strong evidence of the cognitive, social, and economic benefits of language learning for everyone at every age. And we must do this in a way that fosters a sense of commitment and community. As we discussed in a previous post, social networking environments like Ning can help us do just that.
I was painfully reminded of the wise advice given by Marty Abbott, ACTFL’s Director of Education:
The time to advocate for our language programs is when they enjoy strong support.
We must nurture and strengthen those commitments so that we have a reservoir to draw from when times are tough. And these days no one and no program is immune.
Does this make sense to you? Would you use these online environments to support and promote your programs? What are some of the ways you’ve been able to strengthen and expand your programs even in these difficult economic times? We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.
In which we thought we were home free by Barbara Lindsey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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