MDUSD's Multilingual Education Department held its second Farsi Heritage Language Listening Session on Thursday to get feedback on an idea to offer a Farsi Heritage Language program to the more than 500 District students whose families speak Farsi or Dari. The Department plans to host another Farsi Listening Session in the future and to distribute an online survey, said Chitra Bhardwaj, Assistant Director of Multilingual Education.
Bhardwaj and other members of the Department shared a PowerPoint presentation that showed Persian (including Iranian, Farsi and Afghan Dari), is spoken by 542 students, making it the second-most common language other than English spoken by District students, behind Spanish. The presentation also showed that 764 District students were born in Afghanistan, making it the top birth country of MDUSD students outside the U.S. out of 126 countries, as of October, 2024.
A "Heritage Language Program" includes instruction in the language of an immigrant student's native country, Bhardwaj said. As an immigrant from India, she said that the loss of an person's native language in the U.S. can feel like "a loss of identity." She realized that "in order to learn a new language, we don't have a lose a language. We don't have to get rid of our roots." A Farsi Heritage Language program could help families to preserve students' culture and language, and enhance their sense of belonging, Bhardwaj said, adding that she has previously launched successful heritage language programs in Washington state.
Parents and school staff members who attended the event were enthusiastic about the idea. Some parents said they have been speaking Farsi with their children at home so they won't forget it, while also helping them to learn English for their schoolwork. Bhardwaj said the District wants feedback as it "dreams" of its "vision" for the program, which could include Farsi instruction in Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and other subject areas during the school day.
Ideas suggested for further consideration included Farsi poetry, offering a high school level Farsi for Farsi speakers World Language course that would meet college A-G course requirements, and expanding the International Baccalaureate Program (IB) at Ygnacio Valley HS to include instruction in Farsi that would earn students IB bilingual recognition. Ygnacio Valley HS Vice Principal Carissa Weintraub and Community Services Assistant Azam Rasuli said their school has about 65 Afghan students they believe would benefit from a Farsi Heritage Language program.
Bhardwaj said staff and administrators at Mt. Diablo HS and Oak Grove MS have also expressed interest in bringing a Farsi Heritage Language program to their schools. "We have received so much positive affirmation," she said. "I think it's so beautiful."