Midd at Mills Update

Latest word on the street is that Middlebury at Mills is slated to open next summer with all of the Arabic School and part of the Spanish School in Oakland, CA at Mills College. A branch of the Hebrew School may also open there with a joint program with Brandeis University, but that is unconfirmed.

Spanish is a logical choice for a California campus because of the opportunities to explore the rich cultural heritage of Spanish speakers in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Arabic School, on the other hand, seems like a purely practical move since it is the program that is in highest demand and needs the most room to grow enrollment. The plan appears to be that by moving the Arabic School, the Chinese School (the second highest in demand) would be able to expand into the space left behind on the Middlebury campus.

It’s curious that the Chinese program was not selected to move to Mills because the San Francisco Bay Area has a very high population of both Chinese immigrants and people of Chinese heritage. Although much of the Chinese population in the Bay Area speaks Catonese and not the Middlebury-taught Mandarin, the cultural and language-based opportunities are numerous. An Arabic and Hebrew School combo is a good idea in theory. In practice, however, the language pledge would prevent the two schools from holding meaningful dialogue.

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