We don’t know of any public school in all of Queens that offers courses in Chinese, Korean or Japanese. This is remarkable when one considers the fact that more then 3 billion people live in mainland China and that economists predict that the Pacifi
Today, students in New York City schools most often have a choice limited to learning either Spanish or French. This is particularly useful for students who already speak Spanish at home. Nevertheless, it seems to us that anyone with an ounce of vision would see the benefits of learning the languages of the Far East.
For this reason, among others, the opposition to the Flushing International School distresses us. At a recent hearing on the proposed charter school, which is to be located in College Point, politicians, business leaders and local residents lined up for a chance to denounce the school. Much of the empty-headed criticism centered on the school's connection to the Asian-American community of Queens.
Fred Mazzarello, the president of the College Point Board of Trade, said a number of businesses had “inferred” that they would move if the International School was located nearby. There goes the neighborhood, Fred.
State Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose) also opposed the school and questioned why students will be required to study Chinese. Padavan assumes that only children of Chinese Americans will be interested.
He's wrong. In an interview with the Times/Ledger, Fredrick Low of the Asian-American Center for Education noted that “Anglo-Saxons who are completely bilingual in Chinese
