Cheer

The children of parents who speak different languages invariably grow up speaking fluently in both English and the language they hear at home. While language experts disagree about the ideal age to learn a written foreign language, few deny the advantage of youth when learning a spoken language.

In the Seneca Valley School District, Superintendent Tracy Vitale has long made it a priority to increase the district’s offerings in foreign languages — and she is committed to starting young.

That’s why the district last year expanded its language program to middle school students in grades 5 and 6 before — and why Vitale hopes to expand foreign language classes all the way to kindergarten.

Heather Hendry, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Education, spoke last week to the Seneca Valley School Board about just how important it is for students at a young age to be exposed to another language. She said the optimal age for children to learn another language is 4 to 8, a time when their brain is rapidly changing and adjusting to new concepts.

In addition, Hendry said, children immersed in other languages at a young age earn better test scores throughout their schooling.

The approach is farsighted, particularly in a global economy where English isn’t always the dominant language. Too many Americans are striving to thrive in that global economy without even the most basic tools needed for communication.

Jeer D

Was it just a coincidence or was the scheduling intentional? Either way, the juxtaposition of two items in Wednesday’s edition of the Butler Eagle tells a third story.

On the front page was the report from the Marriott Hotel in Cranberry Township about Michele Gay, of Newtown, Conn., whose 7-year-old daughter died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting rampage three years ago. Gay was speaking to a local group of emergency response professionals and school officials about being prepared for and preventing school tragedies.

Meanwhile, page 8 included a report and photo from the 10th annual gun rights rally at the Capitol in Harrisburg. Pennsylvanians gathered in defense of their Second Amendment right to buy and bear firearms.

The rally’s organizer and key speaker was state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe. The heart of Metcalfe’s legislative district is Cranberry Township, where a guest speaker was recounting one of the most horrific gun massacres in U.S. history, even as Metcalfe was in Harrisburg touting the rights of gun ownership.

It should be noted that Gay and her organization, Safe and Sound Schools, does not take a stand for or against gun control. Even so, it seems more than coincidental that a horrendous day in Connecticut was being rekindled in the hometown of the man leading a gun rights rally 200 miles away in Harrisburg.

Cheer

Cheers to Zac Dray and his business partner, David Hogue. Their contracting business, You Name it, recently built a home playground for the children of a disabled military veteran.

Dray and Hogue transformed Scott and Ashley Filsinger’s Murrysville front yard into a children’s playland, complete with a rock-climbing wall and tire swing.

Scott Filsinger, a former Army corporal, was injured stateside about 8 years ago while training other infantrymen on how to conduct a house raid in Afghanistan. He gets around now with the use of a cane.

Dray knew Ashley Filsinger, a former Butler County resident, when they were growing up.

Kudos also to the Butler County Parks and Recreation Department, which donated a large part of the supplies needed for the playground construction, including rock-climbing pegs, swings and a picnic table.

The play area was designed to enable Scott Filsinger to play with his four sons. It’s also portable, which allows the family to take it with them if they ever move away from their rental home.

— T.A.H.