It is now common knowledge that the United States is falling behind the rest of the world. Economically, industrially, and educationally, the rest of the world pushes forward and welcomes change, while the United States clings to what it has known for decades. One of the biggest gaps between the United States and the rest of the world is second language policy, which puts the United States at a disadvantage. Those who oppose the change believe that the United States can improve itself without mandating the learning of second languages; they argue that it will cost more money, “disorientate students” to learning a second language, and that the benefits are not worth the costs. Unless a change is made in U.S. language education, the country will continue to lag behind. Making learning a second language compulsory not only helps students, but the country as a whole by “raising the bar” and improving the country's competitiveness relative to the rest of the world. Many people against learning a second language argue that learning a second language is pointless because it is never used after learning it and is quickly forgotten. The problem is the country's secondary language teaching methods. Instead of teaching at a young age, as they should, they make it mandatory at the high school level. Having children learn a second language at an early age is a better method because the early years of childhood are a critical period and later the brain's ability to learn a new language is significantly reduced (Richards). Another problem is that very often there is not enough repetition of what is learned for it to “sink” into students' memories. If taught at a young age and maintained throughout the student's academic career, it does not...... half of the document ......proxy.gc.maricopa.edu/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=23&sid= ce282cb3 -71e8-42b2-9fbd- 3f5cd0565bc4%40sessionmgr11&bdata=JmxvZ2luLmFzcCZzaXRlPWVob3N0LWxpdmUm c2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=66695436>.Metis, Myriam. "A cure for monolingualism". Premier of academic research. EBSCO, October 2008. Web. 12 December 2011. .Richards, J.C., R. Anderson, D.W. Carroll, and A. Radford. "Language acquisition". Ebscohost. 11 January 2011. Web. 08 December. 2011. .