High School drops French and German instruction, keeps Spanish - in response to changing demographics

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I think Spanish should be taught in elementary school

It is at least in the school district where we live, but it's just precursory skills.

[mawilson 2,133]

Why are you all so afraid of the future?

Stop the hate, people!

English is the future. There are more English speakers in the world (although about the same number of native English and Spanish speakers.)

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Why are you all so afraid of the future?

Stop the hate, people!

English is the future. There are more English speakers in the world (although about the same number of native English and Spanish speakers.)

English is a messed up language. Try teaching American English to a 6 yr. old.

[mawilson 2,133]

Why are you all so afraid of the future?

Stop the hate, people!

English is the future. There are more English speakers in the world (although about the same number of native English and Spanish speakers.)

English is a messed up language. Try teaching American English to a 6 yr. old.

A 6-year-old can learn it naturally, just by listening to his parents talk.

[Jenn! 918]

Does it really matter? A year of language class will give hardly any benefit IMO. Three years minimum, whether that's Spanish or some other language.

[Amby 490]

oh boooo. people should learn the language they want not just have one choice. I do agree that spanish is becoming more and more important in the US though.

English classes are required in many countries. Spanish shouldn't continue to be an elective. I agree they shouldn't get rid of other languages, but a student would then have to take Spanish in addition to whatever elective languages they wish to learn.

I think learning spanish from a young age would sure as heck make life easier for some people. I know if I knew spanish I would have had an easier time working with mexicans. a lot of the time they would just pretend they had no clue what I was talking about since I was speaking in English. grrrrrrrr

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Why are you all so afraid of the future?

Stop the hate, people!

English is the future. There are more English speakers in the world (although about the same number of native English and Spanish speakers.)

English is a messed up language. Try teaching American English to a 6 yr. old.

A 6-year-old can learn it naturally, just by listening to his parents talk.

Think about that one for awhile.

[Fandango 1,439]

Besides language, what I think would be relevant to kids would be studying how an APR works on a charge card. How to balance a checkbook. I understand there's home ec, but I hired a seamstress to make my 'boombox pillow'

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Does it really matter? A year of language class will give hardly any benefit IMO. Three years minimum, whether that's Spanish or some other language.

The benefit goes beyond just learning a second language. Just like learning music can help with learning math.

[Jenn! 918]

Does it really matter? A year of language class will give hardly any benefit IMO. Three years minimum, whether that's Spanish or some other language.

The benefit goes beyond just learning a second language. Just like learning music can help with learning math.

But come on, an intro Spanish class? I've seen what they do. What a joke. I can learn more Spanish watching Sesame Street.

[Amby 490]

When I lived in LA my cousin was 6yrs old and he would speak to our maid in Spanish because none of us spoke Spanish. We had to tell him what to tell her. It was a bit embarrassing. He learned Spanish from a very young age because his nanny only spoke Spanish to him from age 6 months.

[Alex+R 0]

Does it really matter? A year of language class will give hardly any benefit IMO. Three years minimum, whether that's Spanish or some other language.

The benefit goes beyond just learning a second language. Just like learning music can help with learning math.

But come on, an intro Spanish class? I've seen what they do. What a joke. I can learn more Spanish watching Sesame Street.

For serious. To be honest, American public language education is a JOKE. I went all the way through AP Spanish but I don't speak that language. I went on the school study abroad in Spain and my host family spoke to me in English a lot of the time. We need to start with language at an earlier age than 12.

[lucyrich 20]

It's nice to say "people should be able to choose whatever second language they want", but the school districts need to be realistic. If two students in the district want to learn Swahili, should they hire a teacher and offer it? How about Arabic? Urdu? Thai? Latin?

Chinese is the world's most commonly spoken language (something like a billion native speakers). Many of them are learning English. We'd be foolish not to teach it to at least some of our kids. I can't predict the future, but it seems like Chinese isn't going to diminish in importance much during the next 20 years.

Spanish is the second most common language, by number of native speakers. If you limit yourself to the continents of North and South America, knowing Spanish and English will get you pretty far.

English is third most common by number of native speakers, but, depending on how you count, may be the most commonly spoken as a second language. There may be more total English speakers than Chinese speakers, if you count non-native speakers.

If a person learns English, Spanish, and Chinese, then they'll have a good chance at being able to communicate, at least in some rudimentary fashion, with something like half the world's population or more.

[SqdnGuns 21]

Should teach Mandarin and Cantonese. World business is conducted in English and Chinese.

Why learn Spanish? Force the ones here who speak Spanish and not English to learn English

[Ban Hammer 13,355]

Why are you all so afraid of the future?

Stop the hate, people!

English is the future. There are more English speakers in the world (although about the same number of native English and Spanish speakers.)

English is a messed up language. Try teaching American English to a 6 yr. old.

blame the brits!