HYATTSVILLE, Md. — In order to make the United States more globally competitive and secure from foreign attacks, the nation must radically transform the way it teaches foreign language.
That was the heart of the message that CIA Director Leon Panetta, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and other government leaders delivered Wednesday to more than 300 foreign language educators who gathered at the CIA Foreign Language Summit at the University of Maryland University College conference center.
“If we are truly interested in having America succeed in the future, with regards to foreign language training, then I believe that the United States should require language study beginning at a younger age,” Panetta said, drawing applause.
“And, finally,” America’s top spy chief said, “we need to get back to mandating language training as a requirement for graduating from college.”
Although the conference focused heavily on how higher education can produce and cultivate the foreign language skills of America’s future spies and intelligence analysts, the panelists agreed that the best time to teach students a foreign language is long before they reach a college campus.
Panetta said K-12 educators need to focus on not just the three R’s of reading, writing and arithmetic but a fourth “R.”
“And that ‘R’ stands for reality, the reality of the world that we live in,” Panetta said. “This country cannot simply expect the rest of the world to speak English. We must be multilingual.”
