Therefore, I think that since the rest of the world is learning English starting in 5th grade---we in the USA should make it mandatory to learn another language starting in 5th and continuing til 12th---What a great world this would be!!!!(More compassionate, literate, and understanding, etc) Anyone agree with me????

Indubitably. At high school, one of my classmates was a new immigrant from Finland, where she said that they had to learn English, Finnish, Russian, and Swedish, and were also obliged to choose two other languages from a list of options. Hptelingual she may have been, but she hated the English pronunciation of sauna. She simply could not help herself - every time she heard "sawna", she would respond "it's sow(female pig)na", much as I now find myself doing with Braun and Audi.