Quote:
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?
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Be sure to check colleges of interest for their foreign language requirements. Most that we saw required 3 yrs but there were a few along the way that required four. Most will also allow you to count middle school courses (as long as the HS does) but definitely doublecheck all of that now rather than later.
(And if you've done that already then just ignore this & consider it as intended as future reference for people who haven't dealt with it yet
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As for the why ... Latin
used to be useful for SAT purposes but with the changes that's likely to make it far less beneficial. If the shortage of qualified teachers ever gets corrected I suspect you'll see Mandarin replace Latin as an option in a growing number of HS curriculum. (Right now hiring Mandarin instructors can be an expensive proposition unless its done through the Chinese government)