Buckley Introduces Chinese Course

Buckley Country Day School students enjoy their new Chinese class. L to R: Anthony Benja-Athon of Plandome Manor, George Gage and Lee Bono of Garden City, and teacher Ms. Wendy Xiuwen Deng.

In addition to teaching French and Spanish beginning in Pre-Kindergarten, Buckley Country Day School has made the important commitment to include Mandarin Chinese in its after-school program for grades K-6. Headmaster, Dr. Jean-Marc Juhel explains, "For a school intent on preparing students to be future leaders on a new global stage, it is vital to always redefine what it means to be an educated American in a changing world. There seems to be little doubt that this includes being proficient in a language other than English and being internationally literate."

Dr. Juhel referred to research recently completed by the U.S. Committee for Economic Development, which confirms that "within the last decade we have begun to glimpse the contours of the twenty-first century. It will be a world transformed by new communications technologies, and by the dismantling of political, economic, and cultural boundaries and barriers. The graduates of our high schools, colleges, and universities will be finding their way, not in the bipolar postwar world we had known for five decades, but in an environment where yesterday's emerging nations have become the new economic powerhouses."

Buckley's Mandarin program is being taught by native speaker Ms.Wendy Xiuwen Deng. Ms. Deng holds a B.A. from Dalian University of Foreign Languages, China, and an M.A. in Chinese Studies from St. John's University. She is the founder of the Dalian Merrytone English Training School and has been a Teaching Assistant at St. John's University for the past two years.

Further commenting on the introduction of Chinese, Dr. Juhel said, "Buckley is a place where tradition meets vision, and I am proud to lead a school that provides an education that is both classical, including a two-year Latin course, and forward-thinking." For more information, visit Buckley's website at www.buckleycountryday.com.