Anonymous wrote:Blah, blah, blah ...

Spanish? Give me a break.

has anyone answered the question what good is Spanish immersion. Most of the maids and gardeners understand some English; haven't really had any trouble making myself understood with the help. Not like it's an important languange.

Blah, blah, blah ...

Spanish? Give me a break.

Oh for goodness sake, ignore the anti-language poster. Clearly her child is not learning a foreign language, so why worry about her opinion? Her comments are irrelevant to the conversation. If you had asked "Parents of children who decided not to do immersion in the first place - do you think immersion is better than AAP" then she should by all means weigh in!

My son is in 2nd grade and will likely be offered a spot at an AAP center. We are 100% planning to turn it down. My understanding is that the only potential draw back is that there might be one level of more advanced math that the AAP kids get that the non-AAP kids don't have an opportunity to take? So assuming my son really gets into math and really wants to take advanced math classes, I'm sure we could find something for him to take over a summer to catch him up in that on the off chance it matters.

I've led service projects to various Latin American countries, and the kids that come out of the Spanish immersion programs in Fairfax County have amazing, near-flawless Spanish. Their accents are spot-on. They achieve a level of fluency that US diplomats are envious of - literally. We were at some events with US officials and the officials got stuck trying to convey a complex point and turned to the high schoolers to help him out. And they did, no problem.

Having a 2nd language will open doors that people who don't value a foreign language can't possibly fathom. While their kids are working at McDonalds in high school, our kids will be translating at law firms and hospitals. Possibly interning with one of the many national security agencies in our area.

Kids can catch up in math any time. There is a narrow window of opportunity for children to gain real fluency in a foreign language, and you can never go back and regain that opportunity.

No brainer. Stay in immersion.

We stayed with the immersion school and our child learned advanced/compacted math in 6th. No trouble transitioning to AAP in middle school. We did speak with the Principal before deciding, and that was helpful.

Where is Russian offered? in middle or high school? in MCPS or FCPS?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:but what good is spanish immersion? Learn something more useful, Chinese, Arabic, Russian i.e., the critical languages.
This is the kind of stuff AAP kids do.

I do not think you are familiar with FCPS programs.
The OP is asking for advice on choosing between the FCPS immersion language school and the FCPS AAP level IV Center School.
No FCPS elementary school is both a language immersion school AND an AAP level IV center school.
(yes, some AAP level VI schools do have 1 hour of language taught a week. And immersion schools do level III AAP pull outs)

OP - you might want to post this in the VA school section. As a "should I stay in language immersion". If you list AAP in the title they will move your post to this forum. In fact, I would leave out the AAP in your question also.

? the question is what good is Spanish immersion?
Why doesn't FCPS offer languages that matter in the world like Chinese, Arabic, Russian.
Spanish is a waste of time.

Anonymous wrote:but what good is spanish immersion? Learn something more useful, Chinese, Arabic, Russian i.e., the critical languages.
This is the kind of stuff AAP kids do.

I do not think you are familiar with FCPS programs.
The OP is asking for advice on choosing between the FCPS immersion language school and the FCPS AAP level IV Center School.
No FCPS elementary school is both a language immersion school AND an AAP level IV center school.
(yes, some AAP level VI schools do have 1 hour of language taught a week. And immersion schools do level III AAP pull outs)

OP - you might want to post this in the VA school section. As a "should I stay in language immersion". If you list AAP in the title they will move your post to this forum. In fact, I would leave out the AAP in your question also.

My kid goes to Chinese school on weekends. I don't think that I'll like any of the Chinese Immersion program. Learning English writing, speaking, etc is always the top priority in this country.

Anonymous wrote:but what good is spanish immersion? Learn something more useful, Chinese, Arabic, Russian i.e., the critical languages.
This is the kind of stuff AAP kids do.

Spanish not useful??

but what good is spanish immersion? Learn something more useful, Chinese, Arabic, Russian i.e., the critical languages.
This is the kind of stuff AAP kids do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm at an immersion school and we have a number of kids who have turned down Level 4 AAP services to stay here for immersion. We have Advanced Math in Grade 5 in Spanish and then Advanced Math in Grade 6 in English for those who choose, or the kids can take regular Grade 6 Math in Spanish. All Immersion kids get Grade 6 science in Spanish.

why wouldn't they turn it down They're in their comfort zone where it is so much easier and less challenging.

Advance Math in 6th grade is pre algebra, taught in spanish (or other target language). I don't see that being outside of a comfort zone. Do your AAP center school kids take their pre-algebra in a foreign language?

Anonymous wrote:I'm at an immersion school and we have a number of kids who have turned down Level 4 AAP services to stay here for immersion. We have Advanced Math in Grade 5 in Spanish and then Advanced Math in Grade 6 in English for those who choose, or the kids can take regular Grade 6 Math in Spanish. All Immersion kids get Grade 6 science in Spanish.

why wouldn't they turn it down They're in their comfort zone where it is so much easier and less challenging.

I'm at an immersion school and we have a number of kids who have turned down Level 4 AAP services to stay here for immersion. We have Advanced Math in Grade 5 in Spanish and then Advanced Math in Grade 6 in English for those who choose, or the kids can take regular Grade 6 Math in Spanish. All Immersion kids get Grade 6 science in Spanish.

Anonymous wrote:Does your DC's immersion school have advance math or just pullout? Do you feel your child is getting appropriate differentiation? If so, I'd stay. I didn't think that was the case with my DC, so we made the switch. Under different circumstances I would have preferred to keep DC at the immersion school.

This. Just curious - is your AAP center Belvedere? They have FLES, so the kids get Spanish as a special - two 30-minute lessons a week. It's not a lot, but it's better than nothing. They also have the Primary Years Program (the first level of the International Baccalaureate) which makes the AAP program an even richer experience. When DC made the switch a few years ago, there was only one AART at Bailey's and pull-outs were routinely cancelled for other things. Bailey's has added more AARTs and strengthened their AAP services since then. If we were making the decision today, we might be more inclined to have DC stay in immersion.

Ask around your immersion school, at my oldest son's school there were about 4-5 kids that I knew of that turned down AAP to stay in immersion. (ask the parents of older kids, not the folks in your grade who are also on their first child)