Anonymous
09/19/2025 00:18
Subject: Middle school electives - 3 years of band or a foreign language?
I know that conventional wisdom is that the earlier a kid starts learning a language, the better. Do folks feel like that has a significant impact at the middle school age (i.e. that a kid who takes, say, 5 years of a language starting in 6th will learn the language significantly easier/better than a kid who takes 5 years of that language starting in 8th?)
Anonymous
09/18/2025 23:57
Subject: Middle school electives - 3 years of band or a foreign language?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Maybe I missed someone else posting this, but at JW kids can take band AND a language. No need to choose.
Yes, I think that's typical, but the issue is that at most schools if you take band all 3 years and foreign language all 3 years you get zero other electives. So the question's more around what the best way to navigate that might be to allow a middle schooler some additional electives.
I’m the OP of this thread and you’ve got the main point right there. The kid in question decided to take a language and band and an occasional art class outside of school. We’ll be doing this again in a few years with a kid who’s intrigued by “tech”. I do wish there was a little more room for exploration in the schedule.
Then just don’t take a foreign language all three years and let the kid explore tech or other things.
It sounds like all MYP schools and some other middle schools don't allow this as an option and instead require foreign language all 3 years.
Require is loose, especially if the kid is taking Band.
We are at an MYP MS and it is def required. We asked if band and another arts elective were an option in 6th instead of taking a foreign language. They said no even when I offered to have my kid take a placement test in our heritage language to show that he was well beyond level 1. They said all kids have to take a foreign language unless they have a reading course, period. Kids who don’t do well in the foreign language have the option to re-take it the next year to replace the grade. They said this is because it is an MYP school.
I suspect the issue is really staffing — they are staffed for this model and once you make one exception, others want in and the staffing ratios are off. They offer both French 3 and Spanish 3 and likely wouldn’t be able to do that if families delay foreign language a year.
This is very school specific.
Anonymous
09/18/2025 23:56
Subject: Middle school electives - 3 years of band or a foreign language?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Related to this--what happened to textbooks for FL? I mean, the resources online are good, and super interesting, but basic vocab, verbs, etc. in a book that can be reviewed in one place seemed way easier to create a good foundation
This is why we buy the textbook. I don’t get why MCPS can’t lend them out to students.
We buy textbooks if the teacher uses them too but we didn't have one FL teacher use one and it was very hard to learn. My kid gave up and dropped after Spanish 5 out of frustration. We had to get a tutor.
Anonymous
09/18/2025 23:16
Subject: Middle school electives - 3 years of band or a foreign language?
Anonymous wrote:Related to this--what happened to textbooks for FL? I mean, the resources online are good, and super interesting, but basic vocab, verbs, etc. in a book that can be reviewed in one place seemed way easier to create a good foundation
This is why we buy the textbook. I don’t get why MCPS can’t lend them out to students.
Anonymous
09/18/2025 22:52
Subject: Middle school electives - 3 years of band or a foreign language?
Related to this--what happened to textbooks for FL? I mean, the resources online are good, and super interesting, but basic vocab, verbs, etc. in a book that can be reviewed in one place seemed way easier to create a good foundation