Anonymous wrote:Depends on if they want to go to college or not. You will need a language to get into most colleges. If you have none- you will have to take at least a year in college (wasted of your credit time and money)

DD will have 1 year of French in MS and 3 years of Spanish in HS.

Depends on if they want to go to college or not. You will need a language to get into most colleges. If you have none- you will have to take at least a year in college (wasted of your credit time and money)

What schools is she aiming for? This can help inform your decision. I’d probably have my child drop language and do band if music is a passion but my current HS kid (and current college kids) isn’t expecting to go to a T20 or even T30. My college kids are happily at UMD and didn’t need 4 years of language. I realize your child may be aiming much higher but I mention this because lots of top students at their W school ended up at UMD and while good grades and challenging classes were important, I think that some of them made a lot of unnecessary sacrifices. If your child loves music, wants to study bio and has an internship opportunity, I think that I’d focus on that rather than trying to find a way to squeeze in another year of language.

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Anonymous wrote:The online health classes are a joke over the summer so my kid is glad to knock them out. Mostly busy work. Her class is at 9am and only needs to be on zoom a couple days a week. Check the language requirements for the schools she is interested in. Chances are it’s 2-3 years unless top 10

That’s strange because my kid is doing health and it’s three times a week throughout MCPS. It’s also a considerable amount of with with about 4-6 assignments every single day.

My kids summer health class had a ton of work of few years back.

There's also online health during the school year in the evening 1 day a week with Health A/B being 14 weeks in a single semester.

My rising freshman took Health A this summer because band is important to them. It met in the evening, think it was 7-8:30pm. Class was every other day for 2.5 or 3 weeks. On the nights there was no class, they used that time to do the homework. There were a lot of assignments but it was mostly all busy work. My kid did not put a ton of effort it and got a 98. All that's to say, I think your daughter can easily do 2 sessions of health in the evenings next summer but she might miss out on some time with friends.

Anonymous wrote:4 years of a language is required to get into tippy top schools.

+1 If she's unwilling to do summer school, this is the way to go. Fwiw my DC took 4 summer school classes in order to preserve music electives, and it was nbd.

4 years of a language is required to get into tippy top schools.

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Anonymous wrote:In order to take a double period AP Biology class senior year, DD needs to drop either Spanish or band. Is it better to have four years of language, terminating in Honors Spanish 4, or four years of band, terminating in Wind Ensemble? If she keeps both, she’d need to take Health in summer school, which she really doesn’t want to do.

She wants to study Biology or Environmental Science in college.

Better for what?
For college admissions, it doesn't matter.

For your your daughter (remember her?), whichever she cares more about.

Learning language in school is completely useless. No one learns language in school. You learn language and immersion.

You can't do band on your own.

Umm … having a foundation for a language in school is pretty helpful though.

The extent of ignorance on this thread is astonishing.

No. We’re not ignorant simply because we disagree with you.

You think that learning a language in school is more fulfilling. I think that playing in a musical ensemble in school is more fulfilling.

Either way, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is what OP’s kid finds more fulfilling/rewarding.

No. I think both are fulfilling. I am a musician and played music throughout high school as my main extracurricular. I also took 4 years of a foreign language.

It’s actually possible to love both.

And I agree with you. It’s possible to love both languages and music. I took French and Spanish and played the clarinet through college.

But MCPS implements scheduling conflicts so that the OP’s daughter needs to choose one.

In OP’s case, it sounds like SHE (not you) enjoys music better. Probably Band would be better for her mental health and her whole self. If she doesn’t love Spanish, why push it?

This is not an mcps issue but a parent and child who did not plan. You can knock out some graduation requirements in middle school and do health Ed in summer school for flexibility. Lots of kids in health Ed right now to make both happen.

Wow. You sound smug and bitter.

And you are wrong.

Health B was not offered last year in MCPS summer school. How could she have taken it?

Smug and bitter? OP said child has not taken Health A or B. Ideally they would have taken Health A already and taken Health B this summer. Their failure to plan is not MCPS's fault.

Why on earth should kids be forced to rely on summer school? That’s absurd.

28 classes in high school. If you want more, you need to do it on summer or middle school.

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Anonymous wrote:In order to take a double period AP Biology class senior year, DD needs to drop either Spanish or band. Is it better to have four years of language, terminating in Honors Spanish 4, or four years of band, terminating in Wind Ensemble? If she keeps both, she’d need to take Health in summer school, which she really doesn’t want to do.

She wants to study Biology or Environmental Science in college.

Better for what?
For college admissions, it doesn't matter.

For your your daughter (remember her?), whichever she cares more about.

Learning language in school is completely useless. No one learns language in school. You learn language and immersion.

You can't do band on your own.

Umm … having a foundation for a language in school is pretty helpful though.

The extent of ignorance on this thread is astonishing.

No. We’re not ignorant simply because we disagree with you.

You think that learning a language in school is more fulfilling. I think that playing in a musical ensemble in school is more fulfilling.

Either way, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is what OP’s kid finds more fulfilling/rewarding.

No. I think both are fulfilling. I am a musician and played music throughout high school as my main extracurricular. I also took 4 years of a foreign language.

It’s actually possible to love both.

And I agree with you. It’s possible to love both languages and music. I took French and Spanish and played the clarinet through college.

But MCPS implements scheduling conflicts so that the OP’s daughter needs to choose one.

In OP’s case, it sounds like SHE (not you) enjoys music better. Probably Band would be better for her mental health and her whole self. If she doesn’t love Spanish, why push it?

This is not an mcps issue but a parent and child who did not plan. You can knock out some graduation requirements in middle school and do health Ed in summer school for flexibility. Lots of kids in health Ed right now to make both happen.

Wow. You sound smug and bitter.

And you are wrong.

Health B was not offered last year in MCPS summer school. How could she have taken it?

Smug and bitter? OP said child has not taken Health A or B. Ideally they would have taken Health A already and taken Health B this summer. Their failure to plan is not MCPS's fault.

Why on earth should kids be forced to rely on summer school? That’s absurd.

Anonymous wrote:The online health classes are a joke over the summer so my kid is glad to knock them out. Mostly busy work. Her class is at 9am and only needs to be on zoom a couple days a week. Check the language requirements for the schools she is interested in. Chances are it’s 2-3 years unless top 10

That’s strange because my kid is doing health and it’s three times a week throughout MCPS. It’s also a considerable amount of with with about 4-6 assignments every single day.

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Anonymous wrote:OP here and for those asking, DD is way more into music than language. She hopes to study biology in college, which is why we’re in this predicament. She just decided she wants to take AP Biology, a double period, and that has messed with her schedule.

I think you have your answer OP! Let her stick with what she enjoys in this case.

If she ever 'needs' to get up to speed with a language, she can always go hard on DuoLingo or something like that.

DuoLingo? What a joke. You have no knowledge of language instruction.

BS

Doing DuoLingo (or something similar) for the same amount of time daily that you are in a high school Spanish class is actually quite effective.

It’s hardly a replacement for a language class.