Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is unfortunate but administrators are often lazy and don’t want to go through the extra effort of finding a teacher for a subject like Latin.
Also, the HR folk at central are pretty bad so there is not much support. Teachers don’t seem to understand or care what sort of havoc is caused on kids when they quit mid year.

Wow... Do you really believe this? Administrators are lazy, HR is bad, teachers don't care. Isn't it much more likely that finding a Latin teacher to take a mid-year opening is incredibly difficult? There is a national shortage of Latin teachers.

This! It's hard to find mid-year replacements in any case, but the more specialized the subject, the harder it will be to find someone who is both qualified and available.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The school tried to do something - they did not find a qualified candidate. What do you want the school to do?

Would you be pissed if they had an unqualified teacher there?

Deal a few years ago wanted to start Arabic as a foreign language option. They could not find a qualified teacher (someone who knew how to teach this language to middle school students) So they decided not to offer the language.

This is obviously Wilson. I don’t have a kid affected but hard to believe administrators tried very hard to find a replacement.
In my experience they seem more concerned with ease and convenience than what is best for kids

My "nice" elementary school had a Spanish teacher go on leave. They knew it for months and could never find a sub. Obviously not the same as a high school class for credit, but imagine how much harder it is to find a qualified high school language teacher. Not to mention the lack of quality candidates for regular hiring season.

Anonymous wrote:I'll tutor your son Latin, geeze! Is there no self study option? Our son did an online music theory course for a hs elective that "counted". There must be a dozen alternative Latin programs that are accredited HS coursework. Also - many intensive summer language programs can earn a HS credit; there may be a place that offers latin? What a pity the classics are so undervalued! Figure this out - your son should continue his Latin journey despite DCPS in action. Vale!

Given the world we live in today with rampant technology and teacher shortages, online electives should be commonplace.

I'll tutor your son Latin, geeze! Is there no self study option? Our son did an online music theory course for a hs elective that "counted". There must be a dozen alternative Latin programs that are accredited HS coursework. Also - many intensive summer language programs can earn a HS credit; there may be a place that offers latin? What a pity the classics are so undervalued! Figure this out - your son should continue his Latin journey despite DCPS in action. Vale!

Anonymous wrote:It is unfortunate but administrators are often lazy and don’t want to go through the extra effort of finding a teacher for a subject like Latin.
Also, the HR folk at central are pretty bad so there is not much support. Teachers don’t seem to understand or care what sort of havoc is caused on kids when they quit mid year.

Wow... Do you really believe this? Administrators are lazy, HR is bad, teachers don't care. Isn't it much more likely that finding a Latin teacher to take a mid-year opening is incredibly difficult? There is a national shortage of Latin teachers.

Anonymous wrote:The school tried to do something - they did not find a qualified candidate. What do you want the school to do?

Would you be pissed if they had an unqualified teacher there?

Deal a few years ago wanted to start Arabic as a foreign language option. They could not find a qualified teacher (someone who knew how to teach this language to middle school students) So they decided not to offer the language.

My charter school wanted to offer a new language option (Mandarin) for middle and high school. They found one teacher but not the second. Mandarin is starting in the middle school and they are continuing to search for the second teacher to be the high school level person. Unqualified teachers don't work for any subject but for Latin, Arabic or Mandarin? Those aren't easy to fake and there aren't dozens of teachers around to take the job. Plus, filling vacancies mid-year is hard. Many teachers don't want to leave their kids mid-year.

Anonymous wrote:The school tried to do something - they did not find a qualified candidate. What do you want the school to do?

Would you be pissed if they had an unqualified teacher there?

Deal a few years ago wanted to start Arabic as a foreign language option. They could not find a qualified teacher (someone who knew how to teach this language to middle school students) So they decided not to offer the language.

This is obviously Wilson. I don’t have a kid affected but hard to believe administrators tried very hard to find a replacement.
In my experience they seem more concerned with ease and convenience than what is best for kids

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is unfortunate but administrators are often lazy and don’t want to go through the extra effort of finding a teacher for a subject like Latin.
Also, the HR folk at central are pretty bad so there is not much support. Teachers don’t seem to understand or care what sort of havoc is caused on kids when they quit mid year.

really so when DCPS riffs teachers due to budget cuts mid-year, what are they doing? Most teachers who quit have a reason, DCPS fails to follow up and find out why! If teachers are quitting in droves from a particular school, department, or subject area there is an issue. Of course you will always get one off emergencies. But teachers are human, just like it's not great if your doc/nurse/ etc leaves suddenly but they are not martyrs tied to the job at any cost. DCPS should have a plan for any such emergency, unfortunately they don't and don't bother to find out what is going on when teachers quit.

Anonymous wrote:It is unfortunate but administrators are often lazy and don’t want to go through the extra effort of finding a teacher for a subject like Latin.
Also, the HR folk at central are pretty bad so there is not much support. Teachers don’t seem to understand or care what sort of havoc is caused on kids when they quit mid year.

Anonymous wrote:For an elective, yeah it’s not unusual.

When colleges require a certain number of years of a foreign language, it isn't truly an elective. Colleges won't count half a year of language A and have a year of language B. OP's kid will be a year behind on this requirement and will have wasted a semester that could have been used for other classes.

OP, what do you think should happen?