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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This comes up every year and I get needlessly aggravated.  I was a triple major in college with two languages and my oldest child took 7 years of Spanish in MS and HS, so I’m not any language.  [b]But some kids just do not like it, and the truth is almost no one can speak Spanish decently just from taking HS Spanish in most public schools. [/b] It is just a waste of time for most kids.
My younger kid really wants to quit after Spanish 4 in 10th grade so they can double up on AP science and math classes (AP phy, AP chem, AP calc, AP stats).  It seems dumb to make them instead take Spanish 5, when in reality I know they will get very little from it.  [/quote]

This point always comes up but it doesn’t make much sense to me. Most kids that take four years of math barely scratch the surface of higher level math. Kids that take four years of science aren’t scientists.

On the one hand, I understand that it feels absurd when kids take four years of a language and don’t have much competency in it (especially for “easier” languages for English speakers), but it’s not like they are experts in others topics after four years either. We just don’t think of other topics that way - in those cases, we just view it as a necessary part of the process. And for kids that hate math and science, those classes are no better use of their time nor are they necessarily getting much from them either. We still expect the kids to take them as part of their education.[/quote]

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