Darien residents urged the Board of Education last week to add foreign language teachers to the town's elementary schools in 2011-2012, citing an increasingly global marketplace and opportunities for meeting people from other nations.

Speaking at a public hearing at Darien High School, seven parents v0iced support for implementing the plan in the fall. None spoke against it.

Superintendent Stephen Falcone estimated that adding one teacher to each of Darien's five elementary schools—along with the necessary staffing materials and textbooks—would cost $320,000.

Karen Christiansen, an educator who has taught Italian, said she assumed Darien’s elementary schools were teaching another language to pupils when she moved to town five years ago.

"It is not a new initiative,” Christiansen said.

Glastonbury started operating such programs in 1957, she noted, and her preschooler was learning Spanish in Darien when she arrived in town.

Last spring, Christiansen helped start a petition of Darien residents in support of this initiative. She and and several like-minded neighbors found 1,700 Darienites who agreed with them.

“People want what Westport, Wilton, Greenwich, and New Canaan have,” Christiansen said. “You may be able to find your suitcase in an airport with a nominal knowledge of Spanish. But can you broker a business deal without fluency in Spanish?”

Americans who do not understand a language other than English are at a distinct disadvantage in the increasingly global world, she argued.

“I became a world traveler with a great career because of my language skills,” Christiansen said. At the school where she taught, the average elementary school student knew three languages.

Brian Daly said he moved to Darien in part because he and his wife wanted their three children to benefit from the town’s "stellar" public schools. He learned Chinese in college, a skill he said he uses to great effect in his career in financial services.

“[Knowing Chinese] is one of the best returns on investment that I ever got in my education,” Daly said. “A monolingual manager is very limited, and a monolingual employee is limited.”

“When we were kids, [Americans] did not need to speak another language. Foreign languages were what people in undeveloped countries learn," he added.

Sylvia Larizza, a mother of three, said she learned Spanish as a child from her own mother, who grew up in Spain. Fully bilingual, Larizza uses her language skills to advance in her professional career.

“I understand there are many things on the table, and limited funds,” Larizza said. “It is absolutely important for a child to speak another language at an early age.”

Although she has worked at companies in which a boss called her fluency in Spanish and English not relevant to her job, Larizza said she proved that person wrong every time. 

Knowledge of a second language correlates to students improving their cognitive development overall, she added

“In this time of limited funds and proposals, I urge you to put us in that excellent ranking of schools,” Larizza said.