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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote] I know parents whose kids are going to an SLHS from Carson who have not been told about the IB requirement and are upset when they learn about it as Freshmen or Sophomores. The Carson literature on language that I saw for rising 7th graders mentioned the IB requirement on the backside of the language info sheet that was given out. It was one line and not highlighted. The video that was released for rising 7th graders encouraged kids to not take a foreign language in 7th grade, because it was a high school class, and strongly suggested that waiting until 9th grade was a good idea for most students. It did not mention that kids going to SLHS need to start the language in 8th grade if they think they want to earn the IB Diploma. I would bet that the language requirement and the crap Counseling from Carson is a part of the reason why IB Diploma numbers at SLHS are low.[/quote]

Another problem at Carson is kids coming from Fox Mill did Japanese, but the Japanese teachers at RCMS and SLHS are very bad, and unless you are one of the kids who speaks Japanese at home, these teachers will actively drive kids away from wanting to speak Japanese. Then they are challenged if they want to switch languages in 8th or 9th grade. The only way around it is to do a summer class in the new language.

I haven’t seen any diploma numbers at SLHS. There aren’t that many kids there trying to do IB, but the ones who start generally finish as far as I can tell.[/quote] My middle child, a 2024 grad, had a very positive experience with Japanese at South Lakes. He was not an immersion student, so I was worried, especially as I had only studied Romance languages myself, so would be no help. Through his Japanese work at SLHS, and the encouragement of his teacher, he was nominated for and attended governor’s world languages academy for Japanese last summer. He’s starting college next year majoring in Asian studies. Japanese was his strongest teacher connection in high school. Just sharing another experience.

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We are a Fox Mill family. Most of my friends who have kids at Carson and SLHS that have been in JI have had good experiences. The main tip that we have been given is to practice the Hiragana and Katikana over the summer entering 7th grade. A few people have complained about the Teacher but most of the kids seem to have positive experiences. The Japanese Teacher at Carson has said that the biggest problem is that too many kids from JI do not go in knowing the alphabets well enough and that gets them off on a bad foot. So DS is going to be practicing his alphabets over the summer. He has some friends who are fluent in Japanese who I think can help if he needs it. We will see how it goes.

I do know kids who have received the same information and are choosing to start a different language in 7th or 8th grade. They know they need the 5 years to be able to earn the IB Diploma. It seems like the kids who are not in JI are the families less familiar with the language requirement. I suspect it is something that is mentioned in JI in ES and in MS but not necessarily discussed for kids in the non-JI classes.  [/quote]

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