A bit of background missing from this article: primary school (1st - 4th grade) English is a relatively new (last 20 years or so) innovation, while secondary sc

A bit of background missing from this article: primary school (1st - 4th grade) English is a relatively new (last 20 years or so) innovation, while secondary school (5th grade onward) English has been a widespread thing for far longer. That English instruction, judging from the quality of similarly-aged colleagues' understanding and use, was far more thorough and effective than even my relatively good Spanish instruction (8th-11th grade in the 90s) was in Texas. My husband didn't have school English until 5th grade, but sounds like a Brit to Americans, and can negotiate pretty well: his mother was a Gymnasium (college-prep high school) English teacher and taught him a bit as a four year old while she was home for the year after his little sister was born, but didn't really bother with it after that. That bit as a little kid, however, was apparently the magic. His sister, by the way, does not speak English better than most other well-educated Germans her age - their mother was too busy to repeat the experiment with her. I joke that my mother-in-law has only herself to blame for getting stuck with an American daughter-in-law - I doubt I'd have been able to form as deep a relationship with my husband if he couldn't speak English as well as he does. My German is enough to carry on a cordial relationship with my in-laws and participate in parents' council and amateur radio stuff, but not to deal with the weightier parts of marriage and how we're raising our child. As the parent of an American-German and a Bavarian schools taxpayer, I'd rather see a little exposure in Kindergarten (3-6 years old) than the current very uneven primary school efforts. Get the English sounds in their ears while their little brains are still so flexible, and do the education later, after they're fully literate in the language they need to know: German. The Krippe (daycare) and Kindergarten workers are relatively young, and have more casual English exposure (and confidence) than the older, better-educated school teachers, and might be better positioned to provide that early exposure, funny enough.