Oakland Schools announced that it is moving into its second year of a Chinese Language & Culture Initiative by continuing to develop four major components of the program:

• Building awareness of China’s history as well as contemporary issues in China
• Offering Preschool through 12th grade Chinese language acquisition programs across the county
• Offering innovative online learning materials and strategies to expand high quality world language learning opportunities county-wide
• Providing exploratory and enrichment opportunities to students and adults.

Since its inception in September 2007, in response to the Oakland County Executive’s call to introduce Chinese language and culture into every school district in Oakland County, this curriculum is now being taught in 23 of Oakland County’s 28 public school districts.

The program, featuring classroom instruction, specially developed curriculum, summer camps, online instruction, and booking and training of teachers from China has garnered national and international notice for its rapid start-up, business partnerships, entrepreneurial emphasis, and for opening the door to networking in the interest of educational transformation.
 
The program has received awards from both the Michigan and National School Public Relations Associations and was featured in the February 2008 issue of The School Administrator magazine, a publication of the American Association of School Administrators. The program also recently attracted the attention of a film crew from Zhengzhou Education TV, the Education Ministry of China, who are in the United States for two months, filming a documentary about innovations in American education.

The film crew traveled to Oakland County for two days last week to visit several schools and interviewed program architects Dr. Vickie L. Markavitch, Oakland Schools Superintendent and L. Brooks Patterson, Oakland County Executive on Wednesday.
 
The film crew visited the Oakland Schools Technical Campus Southeast in Royal Oak , Athens High School and Baker Middle School in Troy , and Lessenger Elementary School in Lamphere to get a taste of the Chinese Language & Culture Initiative as well as other uniquely American educational offerings. The Chinese find our emphasis on creativity, dialog, interaction, and the Socratic method of particular interest because of its contrast to the Chinese emphasis on scholastic uniformity and behavior.
 
“Today’s world-wide economic crisis is a painful example of how flat our world is becoming and the need for students to have a more global orientation in their education,” Markavitch said.  “We are delighted to engage in an ongoing dialog with the Chinese people as part of our emphasis on world languages and cultures and will use this model for instruction in world languages throughout the county.”

For more information about the Oakland Schools Language & Culture Initiative, visit the Oakland Schools Web site at www.oakland.k12.mi.us and click on “Chinese Language & Culture” under the Educators column.

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