Garrison Forest School Named Maryland's First Confucius Classroom Among Independent Schools

02/11/2010

OWINGS MILLS, MD (February 11, 2010): Garrison Forest School (GFS) has been named Maryland's first Confucius Classroom among independent schools, one of only a handful of independent school Confucius Classrooms in the country.

China's non-profit Office of Chinese Language Council International, or Hanban Institute (Hanban), selected GFS as a Confucius Classroom. Hanban funding will bring a graduate of a Chinese university to teach Mandarin Chinese full-time at GFS and live on campus as a contributing part of the school's thriving regional, national, and international residential community. Funding also will support the creation of a physical space on the GFS campus dedicated to the promotion of Chinese language, history, art, and culture.

"We are delighted and honored to have been selected as a school for the Confucius Classroom program," says G. Peter O'Neill, Jr., Head of Garrison Forest School since 1994. "As a school committed to educating our students for a global experience, the teaching of Mandarin Chinese and the promotion of Chinese culture will continue to broaden and enrich all Garrison Forest students." Garrison Forest's Confucius Classroom is in collaboration with the Confucius Institute at the University of Maryland, an organization with which GFS has established strong ties.

An estimated 100 million non-Chinese worldwide are studying Chinese as a foreign language, and the U.S. Department of Education has designated Chinese as a "critical language" for study by U.S. citizens. A recent New York Times article ("Foreign Languages Fade in Class-Except Chinese," January 21, 2010, by Sam Dillon) cites a 4% rise from 1997 to 2008 among the approximately 27,500 U.S. middle and high schools offering Chinese as a foreign language (Center for Applied Linguistics survey). The article also notes that the College Board expects its Advanced Placement test in Chinese, introduced in 2007, to rank third this year after Spanish and French as the most-tested A.P. language.

Embracing Hanban's objective of building bridges between China and other countries, Mr. O'Neill and his wife Peggy F. O'Neill (Executive Director of the Irvine Center) traveled to Beijing and Shanghai from January 10-18, 2010 on behalf of Garrison Forest School. Their itinerary included a visit with Hanban and receptions with current and prospective GFS families. (Read his travel blog at http://www.gfs.org/ under "Headlines.") GFS began a concerted effort to enroll international students in the early 1990s, but it was not until 2006 that the first student from China enrolled at GFS. This fall, the school welcomed ni ne girls from mainland China and o ne from Taiwan.

Recognition as a Confucius Classroom allows GFS to expand its curricular and co-curricular offerings on Chinese culture, arts, and history. In 2007, GFS established an Upper School elective on Chinese Cultural Studies. Chinese-related activities outside the classroom have expanded as well. Today, students enjoy numerous Chinese-themed cultural offerings, including films, informal classes on Chinese calligraphy, campus-based celebrations of Chinese holidays, and trips to China-related arts centers and events at the Confucius Institute at University of Maryland and elsewhere. On December 3, China's acclaimed Nankai University Student Choir performed at Garrison Forest to a packed house. "Our school is truly a vibrant, global community," reflects Mr. O'Neill. "We are deeply grateful to the Hanban Institute and University of Maryland's Confucius Institute for their gener osity and vision."

In 2004, Hanban opened its first Confucius Institute in Seoul, Republic of Korea to promote Chinese language and culture and support local Chinese teaching. Today, there are 282 Confucius Institutes at colleges and universities across the globe, including the Confucius Institute at the University of Maryland, which was the very first in the U.S. Nearly all of the Confucius Classrooms are hosted by colleges and universities designated as Confucius Institutes. The GFS Confucius Classroom marks the 273rd in 88 countries worldwide.

Founded in 1910 and celebrating its 100th year in 2010, Garrison Forest School is an independent, all-girls' day school, Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade, with a regional, national, and international residential program for girls beginning in Eighth Grade, and a coed preschool. Garrison Forest is located at 300 Garrison Forest Road, Owings Mills, MD, 21117.