Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This European is heartily sick of myopic, ill-informed American views on how kids learn languages. In European government secondary schools (age 11 or 12-18) it's completely normal to start studying a second language seriously around age 10, without stopping until age 18. Europe doesn't have "specialty" programs for learning languages. We study languages methodically, like we study math, building skills from one year to the next.

When you come here to staunchly defend Latin's practice of squandering the hard-won immersion language skills of many of its 11 and 12 year old students, particularly poor kids, you come off as a dingbat.

BASIS does the same thing. Deal is a little better. These are not best educational practices. Much could be done to change this at Latin and other schools, e.g. PTA financed after-school language clubs for advanced students. We're not talking about private school kids who come into Latin speaking Spanish and French, and possibly Chinese and Hebrew, we're talking about public school kids, some of the poor and minority.

. Completely agree. Mono lingual DC parents can’t possibly get it.

Latin has an after school club for Spanish-speakers and learners at both the middle and high school level. That could definitely be expanded to other languages. But you, as well as I, know that an after school weekly club is not what language learners need to maintain their fluency.

Anonymous wrote:This European is heartily sick of myopic, ill-informed American views on how kids learn languages. In European government secondary schools (age 11 or 12-18) it's completely normal to start studying a second language seriously around age 10, without stopping until age 18. Europe doesn't have "specialty" programs for learning languages. We study languages methodically, like we study math, building skills from one year to the next.

When you come here to staunchly defend Latin's practice of squandering the hard-won immersion language skills of many of its 11 and 12 year old students, particularly poor kids, you come off as a dingbat.

BASIS does the same thing. Deal is a little better. These are not best educational practices. Much could be done to change this at Latin and other schools, e.g. PTA financed after-school language clubs for advanced students. We're not talking about private school kids who come into Latin speaking Spanish and French, and possibly Chinese and Hebrew, we're talking about public school kids, some of the poor and minority.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This European is heartily sick of myopic, ill-informed American views on how kids learn languages. In European government secondary schools (age 11 or 12-18) it's completely normal to start studying a second language seriously around age 10, without stopping until age 18. Europe doesn't have "specialty" programs for learning languages. We study languages methodically, like we study math, building skills from one year to the next.

When you come here to staunchly defend Latin's practice of squandering the hard-won immersion language skills of many of its 11 and 12 year old students, particularly poor kids, you come off as a dingbat.

BASIS does the same thing. Deal is a little better. These are not best educational practices. Much could be done to change this at Latin and other schools, e.g. PTA financed after-school language clubs for advanced students. We're not talking about private school kids who come into Latin speaking Spanish and French, and possibly Chinese and Hebrew, we're talking about public school kids, some of the poor and minority.

. Completely agree. Mono lingual DC parents can’t possibly get it.

Anonymous wrote:This European is heartily sick of myopic, ill-informed American views on how kids learn languages. In European government secondary schools (age 11 or 12-18) it's completely normal to start studying a second language seriously around age 10, without stopping until age 18. Europe doesn't have "specialty" programs for learning languages. We study languages methodically, like we study math, building skills from one year to the next.

When you come here to staunchly defend Latin's practice of squandering the hard-won immersion language skills of many of its 11 and 12 year old students, particularly poor kids, you come off as a dingbat.

BASIS does the same thing. Deal is a little better. These are not best educational practices. Much could be done to change this at Latin and other schools, e.g. PTA financed after-school language clubs for advanced students. We're not talking about private school kids who come into Latin speaking Spanish and French, and possibly Chinese and Hebrew, we're talking about public school kids, some of the poor and minority.

Anonymous wrote:This European is heartily sick of myopic, ill-informed American views on how kids learn languages. In European government secondary schools (age 11 or 12-18) it's completely normal to start studying a second language seriously around age 10, without stopping until age 18. Europe doesn't have "specialty" programs for learning languages. We study languages methodically, like we study math, building skills from one year to the next.

When you come here to staunchly defend Latin's practice of squandering the hard-won immersion language skills of many of its 11 and 12 year old students, particularly poor kids, you come off as a dingbat.

BASIS does the same thing. Deal is a little better. These are not best educational practices. Much could be done to change this at Latin and other schools, e.g. PTA financed after-school language clubs for advanced students. We're not talking about private school kids who come into Latin speaking Spanish and French, and possibly Chinese and Hebrew, we're talking about public school kids, some of the poor and minority.

Anonymous wrote:This European is heartily sick of myopic, ill-informed American views on how kids learn languages. In European government secondary schools (age 11 or 12-18) it's completely normal to start studying a second language seriously around age 10, without stopping until age 18. Europe doesn't have "specialty" programs for learning languages. We study languages methodically, like we study math, building skills from one year to the next.

When you come here to staunchly defend Latin's practice of squandering the hard-won immersion language skills of many of its 11 and 12 year old students, particularly poor kids, you come off as a dingbat.

BASIS does the same thing. Deal is a little better. These are not best educational practices. Much could be done to change this at Latin and other schools, e.g. PTA financed after-school language clubs for advanced students. We're not talking about private school kids who come into Latin speaking Spanish and French, and possibly Chinese and Hebrew, we're talking about public school kids, some of the poor and minority.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Washington Latins "model", Boston Latin, is a test in school. Since WL is not, there has been a tension in its mission/vision since it's inception. This is not new. It's the plus and minus of being far more equitable (in one way - lottery based with weighted preferences that are not academic) than BL. If you disagree with that, you would need to change its structure to test in - like a Walls, Ellington, Banneker, TJ or Boston Latin. It is what it is.

I don't agree. This view of how Washington Latin must work--shared by the program's leadership-- is a cop out. Latin's leadership and teachers could offer far more rigor to the most advanced students. At BASIS, another DC charter school, seniors can't graduate unless they've passed at least half a dozen AP exams.

For example, admins won't permit 5th and 6th graders to take languages other than Latin, although a good many come in from DC public school language immersion programs for Spanish, Chinese and French. Some of the UMC parents of language immersion graduates team up to hire pricey tutors to help kids retain language skills, meaning that it's mostly the former low SES language immersion students at Latin who lose their skills. This policy could easily be changed. Also, math is tracked at Latin in middle school, but not humanities subjects, another policy that could be changed. Social promotion could also be jettisoned to help support more advanced academics.

Latin requires significantly more credits than other DC High Schools in order to graduate. Administration has purposefully chosen which AP classes are offered based on their academic/intellectual value. A teacher not bound by the AP US History course curriculum, for example, has much more leeway to create a meaningful course that's more than a collection of facts to be tested. A thing about Latin is you have to trust the administration and teachers to be professionals and have student's best interests in mind; with the mission and vision-statement always at the forefront. So far, they have earned my trust--more than the AP momey-making machine has!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Washington Latins "model", Boston Latin, is a test in school. Since WL is not, there has been a tension in its mission/vision since it's inception. This is not new. It's the plus and minus of being far more equitable (in one way - lottery based with weighted preferences that are not academic) than BL. If you disagree with that, you would need to change its structure to test in - like a Walls, Ellington, Banneker, TJ or Boston Latin. It is what it is.

I don't agree. This view of how Washington Latin must work--shared by the program's leadership-- is a cop out. Latin's leadership and teachers could offer far more rigor to the most advanced students. At BASIS, another DC charter school, seniors can't graduate unless they've passed at least half a dozen AP exams.

For example, admins won't permit 5th and 6th graders to take languages other than Latin, although a good many come in from DC public school language immersion programs for Spanish, Chinese and French. Some of the UMC parents of language immersion graduates team up to hire pricey tutors to help kids retain language skills, meaning that it's mostly the former low SES language immersion students at Latin who lose their skills. This policy could easily be changed. Also, math is tracked at Latin in middle school, but not humanities subjects, another policy that could be changed. Social promotion could also be jettisoned to help support more advanced academics.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Washington Latins "model", Boston Latin, is a test in school. Since WL is not, there has been a tension in its mission/vision since it's inception. This is not new. It's the plus and minus of being far more equitable (in one way - lottery based with weighted preferences that are not academic) than BL. If you disagree with that, you would need to change its structure to test in - like a Walls, Ellington, Banneker, TJ or Boston Latin. It is what it is.

I don't agree. This view of how Washington Latin must work--shared by the program's leadership-- is a cop out. Latin's leadership and teachers could offer far more rigor to the most advanced students. At BASIS, another DC charter school, seniors can't graduate unless they've passed at least half a dozen AP exams.

For example, admins won't permit 5th and 6th graders to take languages other than Latin, although a good many come in from DC public school language immersion programs for Spanish, Chinese and French. Some of the UMC parents of language immersion graduates team up to hire pricey tutors to help kids retain language skills, meaning that it's mostly the former low SES language immersion students at Latin who lose their skills. This policy could easily be changed. Also, math is tracked at Latin in middle school, but not humanities subjects, another policy that could be changed. Social promotion could also be jettisoned to help support more advanced academics.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Washington Latins "model", Boston Latin, is a test in school. Since WL is not, there has been a tension in its mission/vision since it's inception. This is not new. It's the plus and minus of being far more equitable (in one way - lottery based with weighted preferences that are not academic) than BL. If you disagree with that, you would need to change its structure to test in - like a Walls, Ellington, Banneker, TJ or Boston Latin. It is what it is.

I don't agree. This view of how Washington Latin must work--shared by the program's leadership-- is a cop out. Latin's leadership and teachers could offer far more rigor to the most advanced students. At BASIS, another DC charter school, seniors can't graduate unless they've passed at least half a dozen AP exams.

For example, admins won't permit 5th and 6th graders to take languages other than Latin, although a good many come in from DC public school language immersion programs for Spanish, Chinese and French. Some of the UMC parents of language immersion graduates team up to hire pricey tutors to help kids retain language skills, meaning that it's mostly the former low SES language immersion students at Latin who lose their skills. This policy could easily be changed. Also, math is tracked at Latin in middle school, but not humanities subjects, another policy that could be changed. Social promotion could also be jettisoned to help support more advanced academics.

Anonymous wrote:Washington Latins "model", Boston Latin, is a test in school. Since WL is not, there has been a tension in its mission/vision since it's inception. This is not new. It's the plus and minus of being far more equitable (in one way - lottery based with weighted preferences that are not academic) than BL. If you disagree with that, you would need to change its structure to test in - like a Walls, Ellington, Banneker, TJ or Boston Latin. It is what it is.

Anonymous wrote:Washington Latins "model", Boston Latin, is a test in school. Since WL is not, there has been a tension in its mission/vision since it's inception. This is not new. It's the plus and minus of being far more equitable (in one way - lottery based with weighted preferences that are not academic) than BL. If you disagree with that, you would need to change its structure to test in - like a Walls, Ellington, Banneker, TJ or Boston Latin. It is what it is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too bad that Latin never negotiated a charter with DCPCSB that permits them to hold students who don't work at grade level back, forcing them to repeat a year to stay in the program. The BASIS franchise did that before opening back in 2015. It is what is is.

I would think with Latin’s small class sizes and it’s emphasis on individualized instruction, there’s no need to hold any students back, because students would all be at least on grade level.