When I was younger, two American-born girls came from Mexico to live on my farm. They didn’t speak a lick of English and I didn’t speak any Spanish. Eventually, we became close friends despite our language barriers, but we had to text through google translate on a kindle to talk. I vividly remember watching them struggle trying to learn English, the frustration of not being able to spell, pronounce, or use proper grammar. I wanted to help my new friends, but I didn’t know Spanish. Where I live and in many other schools across the country, Spanish isn't offered until high school.

There were three little girls who were disappointed. We were not only disappointed because we couldn’t speak to each other without a blazing screen between us, but also because we were provided limited resources to learn each other's languages. With the addition of teaching Spanish throughout elementary school and on, it will help kids who’ve been in a similar situation before. Teaching Spanish in elementary school will help kids with brain development, it will help people of Hispanic descent, and it will help the economy.

Why Spanish?

• Spanish is the second most spoken language in the U.S.

• Spanish is the 4th most spoken language in the world with 534 million total speakers

• Spanish doesn’t take much time to learn

Learning Spanish at a young age would help kids develop into more culturally accepting adults.

“Learning a foreign language, and the culture that goes with it, is one of the most useful things we can do to broaden the empathy and imaginative sympathy and cultural outlook of children.” ~ Michael Gove, British politician and former journalist.

Children fluent in other languages show signs of having a broader perspective of the world and different cultures. Kids grow a deeper connection to the culture of the language that they learn about. Having children learn about other cultures besides their own is important. Truly understanding what other people are experiencing in their culture and accepting others for who they are could end our never ending battle of justice and equality.

For example, the number of victims in anti-Latino and Hispanic hate crimes has risen over 21% since 2018. People who have been hurt by others based on their culture or race have experienced prejudice. Prejudice is simply defined as a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. People who commit hate crimes haven’t taken the time to actually experience what someone else's culture may be like; they probably were never taught.

However, teaching Spanish is proven to increase others' intolerance. Teaching kids this lesson at a young age will not give them the time to form a preconceived opinion. Children aren’t born racist or hateful. They are taught those ways. Teaching other languages would teach the opposite and it gives room for the percentage of hate crimes to drop.

Teaching Spanish at a young age not only affects you to become more open and accepting, but it also develops cognitive skills.

Teaching Spanish and English Will Improve Cognitive Development and Improve America’s Schooling

Learning more then one language at a young age is proven to help develop kids in many different ways. Bilingual children have improved reading, writing, and math skills, and generally score higher on standardized tests compared to children who don’t have an additional language. Imagine how much our brains are capable of learning with the addition of another language.

Contrary to popular belief, teaching two languages at a time will not confuse young children. This is because kids can naturally navigate multilingual environments. Learning a second language primes their brains to learn multiple languages. Learning different languages opens the door to a whole new world to discover. Language connects us, it’s what brings us together, and helps us learn from each other.

Teaching Spanish and English isn’t just good for native English speakers, it’s also good for people who are native Spanish speakers. 3.8 million students in the U.S. schools are native Spanish speakers who are not proficient in English. The schooling program set in place for children trying to learn English hasn’t been the best. There has been a lack of resources such as materials (books and textbooks), teachers, and overall not the best teaching strategies. Only 67% of students with limited English skills graduated from high school in 2016, while 84% of all students graduated.

Dual-language programs are the best for Hispanic students trying to learn English. According to Cambridge University, more high quality, long-term dual-language programs can close the achievement gap in literacy between English learners and native English speakers after 5 to 6 years. You may be thinking to yourself, why would teaching Spanish help the students learn English better? Isn’t that contradicting learning English?

Proficiency in Spanish (their first language), is a very good indicator of how well that child is going to learn English. From that point on, teachers and other staff members would be able to make an individualized plan according to the individual needs from that student. In the past, the most used teaching method was to take away Spanish totally and only teach English. By taking away Spanish, it only confused the students more and made them feel more alone because they couldn’t speak their language.

Overall, teaching Spanish would help all different types of students and it will help in the success of America’s schooling programs. The U.S. is one of the few countries that don’t require you to learn two languages. 20% of students from the U.S. learn a foreign language and over 90% of the students from Europe learn a foreign language; some parts in Europe even require you to learn more than one language. Most Asian countries start learning another language between the ages of 6 and 9, also.

This puts the U.S. at a disadvantage. As proven before, kids do better academically when they learn another language at a younger age; their test scores for every subject goes up. Almost every country that learns another language in elementary school tests higher than the United States. The United States is ranked 26th overall in schooling according to scores in math, reading, and science. Most Asian and European countries are testing better than the U.S.

Our schooling directly affects how well our economy is going to do.

Teaching Spanish Will Boost the Economy

Having a strong economy is important to the success of our country. The economy is the backbone of the United States. Our whole lives revolve around it and depend on it.

USA's language deficits cost $48 billion per year. Deficits occur when you are not able to fluently speak Spanish. There are breakdowns while negotiating, failure to build global economic relationships, and it makes it harder for businesses to grow internationally . If we could reduce the amount of money we lose, we can put that money into infrastructure, businesses, and our schooling system.

Spanish is the primary language in 20 countries and there are 44 countries that are home to more than 3,000,000 Spanish speakers, which has the combined worth of $6 trillion dollars. That opens the door for higher earning potential for businesses. Businesses more than ever before are having to become more creative in bringing in higher earnings. If you look at China, for example, a lot of the revenue comes from dealings with other countries. China currently has 40,000 students recruited to learn Spanish to meet the demand of business dealings with Argentina and Spain.

Latin America is gaining a lot of attention for its economic potential. Its commodities include crude oil, copper and soybeans among others. China has seen this potential and is already in conversations of investing over 250 million dollars in the next 10 years. Spanish speaking corporations are also taking over Britain’s banks and corporations. This again shows the importance of knowing how to speak Spanish because that will be a whole other demographic reached.

Students taking the initiative to learn Spanish will see an increase in earnings of 10 to 15%. That may seem like a lot of money for a business to ‘give out’. Above we spoke about the Spanish speaking population having access to 6 trillion dollars in wealth, that 10 to 15% increase on a wage of say $20 per hour seems like a drop in the bucket. For future generations providing language classes such as Spanish from a younger age all the way through school will be a huge benefit to our Country financially.

Kids have so much potential. They are our future. If we choose to give them better education, such as teaching Spanish, imagine all that they will be capable of. They will become better by challenging and developing their brains, they will treat others like they would want to be treated, and they will develop into knowledgeable business people, which will benefit the country overall.

I am so fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet those two girls who came from Mexico. No they weren’t exactly like me, they ate different food, listened to different music, and spoke a different language than me. But, because I met them at a young age, I got to experience what a different culture was like. It has grown my love and passion for learning about different languages and cultures.

I didn’t even get the opportunity to learn another language, but I still developed into the person I am today because of them. That is the hope that I have for every child in the United States. Now, take a step back from the life that you have right now. Picture your life as if you had learned Spanish at a young age. Do you see your life any differently?

“A different language is a different vision of life.” ~ Federico Fellini, Italian film director who knew both English and Italian.