Chinese Language in Public Schools

It’s unusual for traditional public schools to teach languages through full-time immersion, but some are trying to jazz up their language departments with a wider variety of language courses. Today, Valerie Schremp Hahn of The Grade blogs about Chinese language teaching in Bowling Green and Clayton. I’m curious where the Chinese teacher got this number:

Wu Williams, who is the type of person to bubble with enthusiasm over most anything she does, was especially excited about today’s visit.  She told the students that by the year 2015, about 750,000 high school students will be taking Chinese language courses.

Whatever the exact statistics, interest in teaching Asian languages is definitely increasing. For more on schools and languages, see my op-ed about languages in charter schools.