By Anna Guido
Enquirer contributor

Kayla Wilcox, 13, prepares a valentine in her seventh-grade French class that will be sent to children through a hospital in Canada. (Michael E. Keating photo)

DELHI TOWNSHIP - At Rapid Run Middle School, students recently tested their foreign language capabilities by making Valentine's Day cards in French for children at a hospital in Canada.

On Wednesday, Sycamore High School students helped Spanish-speaking students in Norwood make valentines in English, while at the same time learned some Spanish.

These exercises are just two examples of what more elementary schools in Ohio will follow.

New foreign language academic content standards adopted by the state board of education in December have been written for students in all grade levels - even kindergarten - said Carol Ihlendorf, Latin teacher at Sycamore High School, who helped write the standards.

"The state is placing a very high goal out there for all districts to aim for foreign language education for grades K-12," Ihlendorf said. "Not only is it important now to take a language, but it's important to continue through with one long enough to develop some proficiency, some fluency.''

The Rapid Run project was started by French teacher Jennifer Crawley last year.

"I was looking for a way for my kids to use what they're learning to communicate with a French-speaking community outside of their own school," Crawley said.

Crawley's sixth- through eighth-grade French classes (about 100 students) made 160 valentines and sent them two weeks ago to patients at Montreal Children's Hospital at McGill University Health Centre.

The hospital is used by children of different ages, about half of whom speak French, Crawley said.

Once a month, Sycamore High Spanish Club members visit Norwood View Elementary after school to learn from, and teach, Spanish-speaking students and their families.

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