The Foreign Service Journal, December 2015

EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT 92 DECEMBER 2015 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL FLO: Can you offer examples of schools that do the multilingual experience well? CB: I recently visited the historically significant John F. Kennedy School, a public school in Berlin, Germany. Founded more than 50 years ago, approximately 50 percent of JFK’s student body is American, while the other 50 percent is German. The school’s languages of instruction are English and German. Given the history of our two countries and the need after World War II to foster an understanding between young Americans and Germans, this experimental school was created to provide a safe place where children, parents and staff could learn from one another. The concept was the brainchild of forward-thinking educators from Berlin who could see a world where mutual trust and respect were built through the learning of one another’s languages and cultures in a joint institution. Today, after more than five decades of hard work and commitment to the model, the school community is still committed to this mission. Thousands of JFK students have gone on to play enlightened and powerful roles in society. The students with whom I spoke would not trade this experience for anything, and they know they are changed because of their abilities to live and learn in another language. The staff is also unique. For them, each day is filled with the challenges of learning about each other and learning together. Their teaching has evolved from their own respective culture- centered instruction methods to a more informed and multifaceted approach to teaching and learning. While the John F. Kennedy School may be unique in design and history, the mission and vision of language and culture proficiency is shared with language teachers around the world. These educators believe that language is at the heart of the human enterprise and that learning the language and culture of other countries is at the core of being globally prepared for the future. n