Anoka-Hennepin schools offer their first Ojibwe language class
Students in the Anoka-Hennepin district, at a class based in Coon Rapids, can now take the schools' first course in the Ojibwe language.
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Anoka-Hennepin schools are teaching Ojibwe for the first time, MPR News reported. The class is in the district that includes Coon Rapids, and students described the language as worth learning.
The course is new to the district's catalog. It is one class, not a requirement for every student, and not a claim that the language is new. It is newly offered in these public schools.
For the classroom
Ojibwe is a language spoken by Ojibwe people, also called Anishinaabe, whose homelands include what is now Minnesota. The Anoka-Hennepin school district, which includes Coon Rapids, is offering an Ojibwe class for the first time. Students who enroll are learning a language that has been spoken on this land longer than English has. A first class means the district did not teach it before. MPR News talked with students who said the language is worth learning. The news is that the course exists now, not that every student in the district is taking it.
- Why might a school add a language that was already spoken nearby?
- What can you learn from a language besides the words?
- Who should help decide which languages a school teaches?
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