There has been a new response posted to the following discussion on Change.org:
Idea for Change in America: Obama, introduce Esperanto as a Second Language subject in schools.

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It looks like no one knows that we actually did have several Chicago Public Schools teaching Esperanto to 5th graders and to a number of autistic students.



For the autistic kids, Esperanto introduced order into their language with simplification of grammar that confounds people trying to learn English. Those kids were better able to learn English (and communicate with their family and friends) after first getting a grasp on basic communication.

For the other kids, Esperanto introduced language without the burden of grammatical speed-bumps that interfere with learning national languages. In other words, they had immediate success and were therefore not put off from language the way kids get when starting with English to learn French, Italian, Spanish, or Latin.

There were kids in other parts of the USA learning Esperanto too, thanks in large part to the efforts of R Kent Jones, who is no longer with us, and many others. Kent would teach the teachers by phone and mail so that they could keep up with the kids who were eagerly racing forward. :)

This was an experiment that worked, with no budget, no new teachers. The problem was that it relied entirely on volunteers, grassroots efforts, and evening/weekend time to teach the teachers just a few chapters beyond where they were teaching their students. An official program would help to establish the program into something more self-sustaining.

I taught myself Esperanto when I was in high-school, around 1980. This helped me with further studies of Italian, French, Spanish, Polish, Japanese, and other languages. I don't claim fluency in these, but at an early age I came to understand the structure of language and that helped me to understand any language I later studied. It also allowed me to become more of a world citizen, understanding people in other countries through direct communication. That is one of the greatest benefits that all Americans can derive by learning this language.

Tony Gravagno
Former President, Esperanto Society of Chicago

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That project was started between 1991-1992. I could not continue my efforts with our local group after 1993 for personal family reasons and I moved to California shortly after. I don't know long the Chicago teachers continued their work. Note also that the Principal (like a Head Master here) from at least one school was also learning the language and working closely with teachers and students. Such approval from management is an important factor in adoption.



Someone at the Esperanto Society of Chicago may be able to tell you how long that program lasted or if indeed it still does. (http://www.esperanto-chicago.org/) I have often wondered if anyone did testing of the kids in control groups years later, to see how the kids who studied Esperanto fared in life and studies compared to those who did not in their same class groups.

Children in the 5th grade here in the USA are between the ages of 9 and 11. I do not know specifically what other schools or age groups were learning Esperanto but I do know that R. Kent Jones was working with several teachers around the country.

To my knowledge Esperanto has never been adopted in any USA school system as anything other than an experiment, subject to the initiative and available time of the few individuals who had interest and understood the value. But it's my firm belief that we should have some number of schools across the USA at least trying a dedicated program for a period of at least 3 years, to generate enough statistics to determine the value of a more general program.

posted by Tony Gravagno
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