The Topeka Capital-Journal – Celia Llopis-Jepsen
“Whitson Elementary student Trip Carter already is thinking about the typical things that go along with finishing fifth grade and graduating to middle school. He is looking forward to having a locker, and he’s told his parents he might like to take band. But a more unusual aspect of this 11-year-old’s upcoming middle school career is perhaps the one that seems most natural to him: His coursework will be in two languages, Spanish and English. That is nothing new to Trip, a native English speaker who has been attending school in both languages since kindergarten…School board members touted the idea as a potential economic advantage for Topeka that would cultivate language skills in high demand. They described it as a rigorous approach to education tested and proven in other cities, with cognitive benefits for children and the capacity to boost achievement among English-language learners…research into bilingualism has found benefits that may seem surprising, such as heightened problem-solving skills — an advantage that stems from the way bilingual children sort and regulate information in their working memory systems.”(more)