Anonymous
11/16/2025 03:18
Subject: Is Whitman phasing out Italian?
Sometimes they just don't have the teacher available. When my DD started Whitman she planned to take Arabic and there was a teacher profile on the website. She had taken 12 months of Arabic independently during Covid and was well prepared to start. The school said no Arabic was being offered as they didn't have the teacher, yet her profile remained on the website all of that year and the next.
They purposefully mislead.
They purposefully mislead.
Anonymous
11/14/2025 19:51
Subject: Is Whitman phasing out Italian?
Pyle stopped having Italian because of budget cuts. It makes sense that Whitman is also going to have to get rid of it.
Anonymous
11/14/2025 16:28
Subject: Is Whitman phasing out Italian?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:You can look up who their language coordinator is and ask.
According to the new regional specialties plan, or whatever MCPS is calling it, Whitman is slated to remain a language hub. It has always offered more languages than other MCPS high schools, OP. So I assume the current difficulties with Italian are temporary and due to the retirement and difficulties in hiring another Italian teacher.
Other high schools not in the language zone, however, will probably see their language offerings dwindle to practically nothing.
So does Whitman offer Spanish, French, Italian and Chinese? What other languages?
Latin, Arabic, ASL, Japanese
Anonymous
11/14/2025 13:46
Subject: Is Whitman phasing out Italian?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:lol--i didn't realize MCPS offers Italian. So bizarre how some schools have niche offerings.
The richer schools have lots of different offerings. This is what MCPS considers equity. We have french and spanish.
It’s most interesting considering it’s not the most diverse cluster. You would think more languages would be offered in areas where more languages are spoken given students the opportunity to try language with peers and the community.
MCPS can't offer everything. And with online translation software that can translate text instantly and conversations instantly, I'm not sure how much effort should be expended in learning languages.
I'd much rather my kid have more time/resources dedicated to teaching him to learning to write properly in English.
Translation services are not accurate.
Your kid will still be far less accurate than an online translation service after having attended MCPS.
Anonymous
11/12/2025 19:28
Subject: Is Whitman phasing out Italian?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Spanish and Mandarin are the only languages that make sense to teach at public school, based on regional demographics and world geopolitics and economics.
Given the amount of time available for language instruction at MCPS, I would warn that Mandarin is a hard language to learn. My kid learned it for a few years in private school when we lived overseas for many more hours per week and their progress in speaking/writing characters was pretty minimal relative to learning Spanish which is just an easier language for an English speaker to pick up quickly.
My kid hated Spanish and loves the challenge of Chinese. He went to language camp for a month so he could switch tracks.
I don’t know why one would “hate” a particular language, but it’s well documented that Spanish takes many thousand fewer hours to achieve fluency relative to Mandarin.
Anonymous
11/12/2025 19:26
Subject: Is Whitman phasing out Italian?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:lol--i didn't realize MCPS offers Italian. So bizarre how some schools have niche offerings.
The richer schools have lots of different offerings. This is what MCPS considers equity. We have french and spanish.
It’s most interesting considering it’s not the most diverse cluster. You would think more languages would be offered in areas where more languages are spoken given students the opportunity to try language with peers and the community.
MCPS can't offer everything. And with online translation software that can translate text instantly and conversations instantly, I'm not sure how much effort should be expended in learning languages.
I'd much rather my kid have more time/resources dedicated to teaching him to learning to write properly in English.
Translation services are not accurate.
Neither are most kids if you see them write in English. No one cares if the Italian translation isn’t perfectly accurate-you can get the gist of what is being said from an online translator and if it’s something that needs to be 100% accurate, you can pay a translator.
Anonymous
11/12/2025 17:27
Subject: Is Whitman phasing out Italian?
Anonymous wrote:You can look up who their language coordinator is and ask.
According to the new regional specialties plan, or whatever MCPS is calling it, Whitman is slated to remain a language hub. It has always offered more languages than other MCPS high schools, OP. So I assume the current difficulties with Italian are temporary and due to the retirement and difficulties in hiring another Italian teacher.
Other high schools not in the language zone, however, will probably see their language offerings dwindle to practically nothing.
So does Whitman offer Spanish, French, Italian and Chinese? What other languages?
Anonymous
09/10/2025 05:38
Subject: Is Whitman phasing out Italian?
My kids have no desire to learn any second languages. I am a free tutor to them if they want to learn Mandarin or Cantonese, and I know some Japanese. They tell me that they will take Spanish if it is mandatory for them to pick second language.
Anonymous
09/10/2025 00:33
Subject: Is Whitman phasing out Italian?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:lol--i didn't realize MCPS offers Italian. So bizarre how some schools have niche offerings.
Blair offers Japanese - I don't know if there are other high schools tyhat have Japanese as a language offering
.Arabic too?
Anonymous
09/10/2025 00:33
Subject: Is Whitman phasing out Italian?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Spanish and Mandarin are the only languages that make sense to teach at public school, based on regional demographics and world geopolitics and economics.
Given the amount of time available for language instruction at MCPS, I would warn that Mandarin is a hard language to learn. My kid learned it for a few years in private school when we lived overseas for many more hours per week and their progress in speaking/writing characters was pretty minimal relative to learning Spanish which is just an easier language for an English speaker to pick up quickly.
My kid hated Spanish and loves the challenge of Chinese. He went to language camp for a month so he could switch tracks.
Anonymous
09/10/2025 00:31
Subject: Is Whitman phasing out Italian?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Chinese is offered forgot whic schools have it
Do people know that Chinese is not a language? Mandarin, Cantonese, even Wu are languages. I assume what’s being taught is Mandarin.
Why be pedantic?
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Anonymous
09/10/2025 00:23
Subject: Is Whitman phasing out Italian?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:lol--i didn't realize MCPS offers Italian. So bizarre how some schools have niche offerings.
The richer schools have lots of different offerings. This is what MCPS considers equity. We have french and spanish.
It’s most interesting considering it’s not the most diverse cluster. You would think more languages would be offered in areas where more languages are spoken given students the opportunity to try language with peers and the community.
MCPS can't offer everything. And with online translation software that can translate text instantly and conversations instantly, I'm not sure how much effort should be expended in learning languages.
I'd much rather my kid have more time/resources dedicated to teaching him to learning to write properly in English.
Translation services are not accurate.