When I was a kid, a complaint that was bandied around was "They're over here now, why don't they speak English?" Those people had only one language themselves but carried the entrenched idea that English speakers were the norm, and everybody else could just toe the line.
Teaching other languages in primary school undercuts that prejudice. Kids grow up with the knowledge that there are other places with different ways of communicating and differing cultural practices. And that learning a second language requires more effort than acquiring the first.
Growing up in a monoculture, which Aus effectively was until relatively recently, made it way too easy to dismiss the human worth of people it was hard to communicate with, and you saw that all over the joint.
Does anyone know if Trump has a second language?
The USA has never been a monoculture. That is a superiority myth. In the greater NYC area I grew up with distinct impressions of Asian, Jewish, Italian, Irish cultures.
Spanish and Italian metaphors and phrases have long been part of the vocabulary. At least where I grew up.
Italian, Mexican , Japanese, and Chinese food has long been assimilated. Relatively recently Indian and Thai food. BTW progressives in California have hounded white food business out of business for selling Mexican food. They call it cultural appropriation. I used to call it the melting pot.
Progressives are just as biased and ideological as the wacky right. Both go to ridiculous extremes on the issue.
There have been studies saying learning second languages as a kid improves overall skills.
There is a flip side to the language issue. Having been around immigrants working in facilities I kluived in over the last 5 years there is a real problem with immigrants not learning English. First generation kids are not learning English as a first languae.
If you think it is a white view, American blacks having to deal with it complain about African black immigrants. People Spend years working without leaning basic English. An Ethiopian who has been here for 8 years had to take a picture of menu with his cell phone of me pointing to a selection . He could not read it. It gets worse when dealing with medical issues.
In the words of a black friend regarding a Mexican who was serving food and had trouble communicating, 'I don't Speak Spanish and I aint going to god damn learn it'. Similar black sentiments.