Active Users:1082 Time:01/11/2024 12:55:07 AM
Indeed. Cannoli Send a noteboard - 27/09/2015 11:41:07 PM

View original post
According to what I found, only 14% of secondary schools in the US offer German, which is one percentage point above Latin. I personally never went to a school that offered German (if I did, I would have taken it). None of my friends ever went to schools that offered German, though one of my cousins lived in Minnesota and German was offered there. It was very unusual, so unusual that people remarked on it.
My first high school offered only French & Spanish. For scheduling reasons, the half-dozen freshmen assigned to honors classes were assigned French, so that was my first language. The next year, I switched to another high school, which happened to offer German, but my parents & guidance counselor insisted I stick with French. The French 2 teacher was an over-the-hill literature teacher, whose Italian-American urban accent was so thick, you could barely understand his French, with even several Francophone kids getting confused by him. The next year, I was allowed to switch to German, but the final two years of high school I barely learned anything. What I know today of German has come more from stuff picked up reading history. I was admittedly an indifferent language student, but they just don't teach languages very well, with little to no speaking or listening, and that mostly due to the individual style of the instructors.
In the vast majority of the United States, you have two options at most: Spanish and (usually) French. Some places only offer Spanish. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have moved to a town that had a Latin program. I actually got a waiver to go to that school because it was outside my district, but taking Latin was one of the permitted reasons to switch.
In my second high school, they required two years of a modern language and one year of a classical language, and you could take more years of Latin if you wanted. I believe Greek might occasionally have been offered as well.
Language study in the United States in secondary schools is a complete joke. My Latin teacher was strict, but most people ended up with 4 years of Spanish and could still only say "Yo quiero Taco Bell".
Most of the language teachers I recall were primarily other subjects. A heavily ethnic Italian, who was primarily an English teacher, taught my 2nd year of French, and while the German teacher was the real thing, including being actually German, she was a pushover as a teacher, and also taught social studies. My Latin teacher was primarily social studies and also taught religion, was the sophomore dean and the faculty adviser for mock trial & debate clubs. Latin was WAAAAY down his list of priorities or expertise. The other main Latin teacher was the principal. Whatever the priorities appropriately given to Latin, the human capital really isn't out there to teach it on a wide scale, which I would consider a systemic flaw in education. I do recall that in my parish school, hearing about an anecdote a few years ago, where the high school's religion teacher (a lay woman) got in a lighthearted proxy argument with the Latin teacher (a priest), debating which was the more important subject. The religion teacher thought she had the edge, naturally enough in a Catholic school, only for the priest to tell his students that Latin is the language spoken in heaven, so all the religion classes would be useless when they got to heaven and were unable to converse with God. Fairly humorous if you knew the parties involved and could envision them saying those things, but what I found interesting was that they gave the Latin class to the priest, rather than have him teach religion. On the other hand, any parishioner dedicated enough to teach at the school with have sufficient command of theology to teach a high school class, while if you are going to teach Latin right, the priest is the best choice, as he is professionally fluent.

It's the little details like that, which, IMO, account for the superiority of that system. Whereas the more mainstream high schools made the language the secondary priority.

Cannoli
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Inde muagdhe Aes Sedai misain ye!
Deus Vult!
*MySmiley*
Reply to message
I don't understand education priorities - 22/09/2015 04:21:44 AM 784 Views
The nation is falling apart due to stupidity - 22/09/2015 02:57:18 PM 565 Views
It amazes me how many parents don't seem to think they have a role in thier children's education - 22/09/2015 05:44:33 PM 501 Views
Accelerated Reader! - 22/09/2015 08:37:33 PM 547 Views
Re: Accelerated Reader! - 23/09/2015 01:18:37 AM 612 Views
It doesn't necessarily follow that education is getting worse, though. - 22/09/2015 06:22:31 PM 609 Views
But it has. College is now teaching what high school should have. - 22/09/2015 09:00:20 PM 688 Views
I'll take your word for that, but... - 22/09/2015 11:02:28 PM 546 Views
Re: It doesn't necessarily follow that education is getting worse, though. - 23/09/2015 02:03:03 AM 494 Views
To some extent - not entirely - it's just that the ideas of general knowledge were different. - 23/09/2015 06:25:36 PM 572 Views
You keep making this error in your logic. - 23/09/2015 07:44:00 PM 482 Views
Johnny can't read is hardly new - 28/09/2015 05:25:29 PM 512 Views
It's more symptomatic, IMO - 26/09/2015 05:49:12 PM 502 Views
We agree on most things, then. Good. - 26/09/2015 11:09:40 PM 446 Views
German? - 27/09/2015 03:21:51 PM 505 Views
Do you have the full statistics? That'd be interesting. - 27/09/2015 04:59:40 PM 469 Views
Can you list those language choices? - 28/09/2015 07:21:37 AM 533 Views
Wait, who is that a question to? - 28/09/2015 06:38:20 PM 475 Views
You. - 28/09/2015 08:05:54 PM 627 Views
Oh. I couldn't tell you exactly. - 28/09/2015 08:39:53 PM 516 Views
My local High School only offers Spanish and French - 28/09/2015 05:34:27 PM 476 Views
Indeed. - 27/09/2015 11:41:07 PM 442 Views
My experience is similar. - 02/10/2015 09:14:58 PM 450 Views
That 43% is another BS survey result - 28/09/2015 04:36:51 PM 486 Views

Reply to Message