Advocacy Update: Get busy, y’all!!
Since my last post on advocacy, Jay Mathews got a lot of dissenting opinions on his April 22nd piece labeling Foreign Languages a waste of time and there were ripples and rumbles in the language community. Today, I read a tweet that copied this letter from ACTFL Executive Director, Bret Lovejoy.
I am going to call the above an official response. Please make sure folks in your area “get the memo.” It is time for us to speak up for languages. Write your own letters today.
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About
I am Laura Franklin. I teach French at Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria Virginia, USA. I love working on the web, teaching with technology and discovering new media. I am the Editor of the World Languages collection of MERLOT and a member of the MERLOT Africa Network.
I hope this blog will atract the attention and ideas of those who share my interests.
ACTFL’s response, both Op-Ed and to the blog, have not been printed. Others who have written comments for the blog have also been rejected / not been printed (not sure which is the more accurate description). Re the blog comments, there is not, as far as I can see, either a limit on the number of comments or any reason to reject other than obviously inappropriate responses. IMO people should read the comments there, react, get students and parents to react if possible, and if the responses are not printed on the blog, follow up with the Post and ask why; let the people in charge there see a strong rejection of Jay’s poorly written column (he admits that) and question why some have not been posted.