While some parents are thinking about school supplies and getting new school clothes, Ramona Scott is thinking about the new global economy.
As Scott prepares for her two children to attend St. Louis’ first school where subjects are taught in Spanish and French, she said she is thinking about her children’s future.
“We have to move them out of this box (of only speaking English) so they have better opportunities for jobs in the future,” Scott said.
Scott is among the 170 families who have enrolled 180 children in the St. Louis Language Immersion Schools. The children are African American, white, Latino, Asian, Native American and bi-racial. The school only offers kindergarten and first-grade classes currently, but will add a higher grade level each year until it reaches 5th grade. The school, which is located inside a newly renovated warehouse at 4011 Papin Street, allows parents to register children for either the Spanish Immersion School or the French Immersion School.
Classes begin Monday and parents are excited about what the school offers. “Foreign students speak two or three different languages so they are one-up on the children of the U.S.,” said Vivine Hall, grandparent of student Wynter Leachman.
Even President Barack Obama has weighed in on this issue saying that is vital that America’s young people learn a second language. “We should have every child speaking more than one language,” Obama said in a speech last year. “Young people, if you have a foreign language, that is a powerful tool to get a job. You are so much more employable.”
Rhonda J. Broussard, who is the founder/president of the school, agrees. She said children will “compete in a world we know nothing about. … We need to give them as many tools as possible.”
Broussard, who is from Louisiana, grew up speaking French Creole with her grandmother Jessie Mae Celestine. When Broussard realized her grandmother was happier when speaking French, Broussard decided to learn the language. Broussard, who taught French at a New York high school, said she moved to St. Louis in 2006 to be closer to her family and began to wonder why no immersion school existed here and decided to create one. While a stay-at-home Mom, Broussard planned.
Her mother Iris Broussard she saw the school for the first time in May. “It just blew me away,” Iris Broussard said of the renovated space. “She’s been talking about for so long. She had this vision and she said I’m going to open my own school and she did.”
In addition to preparing children for the future, Rhonda Broussard said the school also allows children to begin to understand that diversity should be celebrated “The school is a place where everyone gets to be normal in their differences,” Broussard said. For more information about the school call 314-533-0975 or visit the website at www.sllis.org.