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The love of all things English begins at a young age in non-English-speaking countries, promoted by pop culture, Hollywood movies, fast-food brands, sports events and TV shows.
Later, with English skills and international education qualifications from high school, the path is laid to prestigious international universities in the English-speaking world and employment opportunities at home and abroad.
But those opportunities aren't distributed equally across socioeconomic groups. Global education in English is largely reserved for middle-class students.
This is creating a divide between those inside the global English proficiency ecosystem and those relegated to parts of the education system where such opportunities don't exist.
[...] It's unfortunate so many schools view an English-speaking model as the gold standard and overlook their own local or regional wisdoms. We need to remember that encouraging young people to join a privileged English-speaking élite educated in foreign universities is only one of many possible educational options.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2020, @07:42AM (1 child)
I wouldn't want everything taught in Latin, but it's well worth learning. It was available at my high school in the 80s, and it's probably still available at prep schools. The Catholic Church allowed Mass in something other than Latin in what, the 1960s with Vatican II? Among Catholics I've known, I seem to recall hearing that Latin Mass was still performed not that long ago, and probably still is.
I'm willing to wager that places like Notre Dame University and Georgetown with strong Catholic roots probably still have a strong Latin language program. Let's not forget all the medical and legal terms too. Latin is still entrenched!
The point being, it wouldn't be that hard to transition higher learning back to Latin... not that we should necessarily do that. What's interesting to me is how many of the "SAT words" I learned had Latin roots. I suspect it wouldn't be that hard to pick up if I really had to do it; but to reiterate, no thanks.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday August 12 2020, @01:47AM
Mass in Latin is still permitted. But the controversy about it deals with the use of the *old* Latin ritual instead of the official *new* Latin mass.