Speaking in Tongues

Today in class we watch a documentary called Speaking in Tongues. It was a really cool video on schools that teach children to be bilingual from kindergarten through the rest of their school years. Most of the classes that the students took were in a completely different language than their own (such as Mandarin or Spanish). It took the kindergarten kids about a year to start completely recognizing the language and by third grade they are bilingual. The documentary stated that the ideal age for a person to become bilingual is before age 13. By doing this with children it expands the capacity of their brains and makes parts of the brain that are typically not in use, useful. The children enrolled in these schools experience a higher level of learning and accomplishment. I think that schools like these are wonderful. I feel that learning like this makes kids more likely to succeed. This documentary amazed me. I wish I would have had the opportunity to be enrolled in a school like this and I want my future children to go to a school like this. It would also increase the cultural competency of all Americans, which I believe is something American really needs.