Junior high must offer more language options
Hola! Mrs. Leonard teaches Spanish 1 in the Junior High. This class is one of the three languages ninth grade students can take. Photo taken by Ben Blackie
January 26, 2018
Ninth grade students that are in level three or honors are permitted to take a language. The school provides the choices of Spanish, German and French. Students need more choices.
There are reasons as to why the school district does not offer other languages like not having enough classrooms and having to pay more staff. But those points can be overcome. Ninth grade is the perfect time to start learning a new language and more students would do this with more choices.
The school district should poll the eighth grade class to see what languages are top choices. If the results show options not provided the district could think about adding one or two in future years. It is upsetting to think students have to take a language that they may not enjoy. Their grades could go down and that brings the students GPA down.
These courses allow students to not only learn a language but also about the culture of the country itself. For some students junior high and high school will be the only years they have time to devote to learning languages and more choices are essential.
