No Esperanto for Connecticut Schools

Did the judges speak Esperanto?

You can’t fault the Esperanto movement for trying. Over the years, Esperantists made a number of attempts to get the language taught in schools. One such example would be the attempt by Mrs. Wilbur Crafts to get Esperanto into the Washington D.C. schools. It’s a reasonable thing: it brings Esperanto to a group of people (schoolchildren) who have the time to study it, increasing the number of people who speak Esperanto, thus increasing its utility.[1] School systems look at the actual utility of Esperanto and then say no.

There probably are ways in which the Esperanto movement could get Esperanto into public schools, but someone (not the schools) would have to foot the bill. And probably offer other inducements. I remember reading about a program in which the Chinese government subsidized the instruction of Mandarin Chinese in American schools. I suspect part of this is a question of the sunk cost fallacy. If you’ve spent a year studying Mandarin at the age of eight, why not continue with it when offered a language at the high school level? Why start all over again with one of the standard European languages?

---

You can follow my blog on Twitter (@impofthediverse) or on Facebook. If you like this post, share it with your friends. If you have a comment just for me, e-mail me at impofthediverse@gmail.com.

---

This blog runs solely on ego! Follow this blog! Comment on this post! Let me know that you want to read more of it!