• Why Study Language?
• Why Learn a Second Language?
• Why, How, and When Should My Child Learn a Second Language?
• A Case for Foreign Languages: The Glastonbury Foreign Language Program
• Language and National Security
• America Doesn't Know What the Rest of the World is Saying (New York Times)
• Beef Up This Country's Foreign Language Skills (Washington Post)
• 9/11 Brings U.S. Defense Needs Into Focus
• Bilingual Education Under Siege
• Famous Bilingual People
• Knowing Other Languages Brings Opportunities (brochure)

The vast majority of students will never have to know the dates of the American Civil War for their job. Most will not need to understand how mitochondria work. Very few will ever need to know who wrote The Old Man and the Sea. Most will be able to avoid ever using trigonometry. Hardly any will be interested in the countries that border Afghanistan (well, maybe that has changed now). If we eliminate from our general education everything that most people can survive without, we can probably limit ourselves to a few years of repeating the words "Paper or plastic?" or "Do you want fries with that?" But some people will blossom and lead much richer lives because they have learned some of these things and their interest leads them down paths that they otherwise would not have chosen. Should we take the biology, math, history, literature, or foreign language out of the curriculum of the individual student because that particular child will never grow up to be a doctor, a scientist, a historian, a literary scholar, an international business expert, a statesman, or the President [of the United States]? Or even have an interst in any of these topics. It would certainly be nice if most people in the U.S. had an appreciation of the value of a general education. Perhaps one tack would be finding ways to highlight the importance of general knowledge for us all.

. . . Limiting our arguments to practical applications can be dangerous and can lead us to exaggerations that eventually weaken our positions. But I believe that one of the best reasons for studying everything is that we simply don't know which thing will make a world of difference in a particular life.

I tell my students that they are going on a long journey. They don't know where they are going, and they don't know what they will need. But they have a magic bag that will hold as much as they can put in it. They should pack everything they can because it all may be useful. The bag doesn't weigh much, no matter how much it holds.

The journey, of course, is life, and the magic bag is their brain.