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Originally Posted by cuervo72
Switching gears somewhat to my daughter's schedule (rising Freshman). My son took care of his language requirement in middle school, and took Spanish III to boot in HS (signed up for Spanish IV but scheduling bumped it; this is probably just as well). Daughter is signing up for Latin. Might be useful for roots and to aid in understanding various terminologies. But my philosophical question is - why are languages deemed necessities by colleges/college prep programs?
I mean, I took three (?) years of Spanish. I can't say I really recall much more than a trace of it. I've never used it. I doubt my son will either, and if he does he'll likely have to relearn it. My daughter sure as hell won't be conversing with anybody in Latin.  So, what's the point? If the point is to be well-rounded, couldn't you get that from other subjects? |
Two reasons, I think, beyond the "well-rounded" argument.
Foreign-language study, like all fields, involves a type of thinking different from what people usually do. In the most basic classes, yes, it's mostly memorization, but after that, reading and writing foreign languages gets you thinking in a different way. It builds synapses and brain power.
Also, while most HS students won't need or use foreign languages, a certain number of them will need and use them in their adult work lives. Picking them up later in life (after HS) is very hard, and no 9th grader is going to know whether he or she is going to wind up in that subset who needs foreign languages. Learning some foreign language in HS can open up professional opportunities down the road.