Do students in Mandarin immersion not learn the same things children in general education programs learn?
Actually, they do, they just learn them in Mandarin. Every teacher in the San Francisco Public Schools has California State academic teaching credentials. Mandarin teachers also have a Bilingual Cross-cultural Language and Academic Development (BCLAD) certificates. The teachers in the Mandarin immersion programs have in many cases painstakingly translated English-language materials into Chinese, so that the students are being taught the same subjects and material as General Education students, but in Mandarin. For example, in second grade students learn about the Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches of government in social studies and study a unit on geology in science. All in Mandarin. Teachers spent the summer of 2010 translating the San Francisco 4th grade social studies curriculum (which includes a large component on the historic Missions of California) into Mandarin.
