Jackson Jambalaya

As someone who grew up learning French in elementary school, its rather disheartening to see French culture decline in South Louisiana. The Wall Street Journal reported this week on how the state is using African teachers to reverse this trend:

"This talented teacher and dozens more from West Africa form a veritable French Foreign Legion of imported educators here. They join staff from Canada, Haiti, Belgium and France itself, as Louisiana's present-day Acadians—the "Cajuns"—struggle to preserve a language languishing on the Bayou.....

For decades, it was forbidden to use French in Louisiana's public schools. Many a Cajun family remembers a grandparent who came home from school in tears after being punished for not speaking English, a language few spoke at home.

But in the 1960s, Cajuns successfully adapted African-Americans' civil-rights efforts to gain minority status. Benefits included a mandate to teach French in all public schools. Foreign governments—particularly France and Belgium—pitched in, subsidizing their teachers' passage to Louisiana.

Initially, there was resistance by some Cajuns to African educators, who were often the first blacks to teach in rural schools. Today's parents take a broader view. "It's expanded his horizons, having an African teacher," says Mrs. Comeaux.

Her son is glad to have Mr. Hounnou, too. "He's pretty interesting," 12-year-old Phillip says enthusiastically. "He told us about African culture, like the masks and stuff." Mr. Hounnou also encouraged his students to watch French broadcasts of this year's Winter Olympics, the seventh-grader says.

Native teachers are scarce in the immersion programs. Of the 11 working in the schools of St. Martin Parish—considered Cajun country's epicenter—only one was born in Louisiana. The others are from France, Canada and Belgium. Both Belgians were born in Africa—one in Cameroon, the other in Senegal...."Article