Spanish Is Now A Requirement For Many Arizona Elementary Students

Learning a new language is one of the most gratifying and useful things you can do with your life. Not only does it stimulate your brain and form new neural pathways to form, it also allows you to communicate with whole new chunks of the human population.

The state of Arizona seems to have caught on to that, because they're ensuring that our youngest end up more bilingual than us.

Arizona Dual Language Courses

Across the state of Arizona, Dual Language Programs have skyrocketed in primary education. The latest of which is at Four Peaks Elementary, a school in the apache Junction Unified School District, who is beginning a similar program for their Kindergarteners.

The program would split the day in two, with one half being classes taught in English, and the other being divided between language skills and classes taught in Spanish. At the end of the year, the program will open up to first graders, and the next will open to second graders and so on and so forth.

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Why is Language Learning Good for Students?

Language skills are a fundamental part of brain growth. It helps neural pathways to connect, and will likely lead to higher intelligence in children learning more than one language.

Add that with the fact that that Arizona has the sixth highest percentage of Spanish speakers per capita, and it makes sense that school systems are trying to introduce students to language skills as early as possible.

Since languages are best learned before the age of 10, giving this program as an option will likely lead to a much higher percentage of bilingual citizens, especially those that don't give up on speaking it the second they're out of class.

[ABC15][World Population Review]