Scottsdale School opens Chinese class

Scottsdale School opens Chinese class (Alberta Times) Sixth grade student Zach Glenn did not expect it to be so easy. Zach and his classmates were in Scottsdale...

(Alberta Times)

Sixth grader Zach Glenn didn't expect it to be so easy. Zach and his classmates took a basic Chinese course at Scottsdale School. This is a curriculum provided by the Scottsdale Unified School District to its three junior high schools and five high schools. The results of a questionnaire survey sent to parents by the school district in the fall of 2009 showed that Chinese is the language that parents most want their children to learn. Gil New Campos, head of the school district's language program, said: "For the past few decades, we have focused on European languages, but now, as we all know, the center of the world's economic center has shifted to the East." "Last year, after three weeks of classes, the students could speak Mandarin," Gil New Campos added. "The children had a deeper understanding of Chinese and Taiwanese cultures." The students also received a teacher who grew up in a different culture and spoke a different language. Eighth-grade students can now take Chinese courses as high school credits and are allowed to take the Chinese AP exam in their senior year.