Since overlap undoubtedly occurs with some high schools (the "haves") offering multiple languages (i.e., Spanish and French or Spanish, French, and German, etc.), it does appear that the majority of public high schools in South Carolina offer no foreign languages at all!What is offered
The state collected information from its more than 1,100 public schools on the foreign languages they offer this school year:
Language / Number of schools
Spanish / 420
French / 200
German / 50
Latin / 38
Chinese / 10
Arabic / 0
Korean / 0
Japanese / 0
Russian / 0
Source: S.C. Dept. of Education
Want to bet against the majority of high schools' having football teams?
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I am a proponent of foreign language education at all grade levels, but I'm not sure your conclusion about foreign language education in "the majority of public high schools in South Carolina" follows from the stats presented for "the more than 1,100 public schools".
According to the SC Dept Of Education website there are around 250 high schools...
I was also puzzled with the numbers in the article. Certainly there are more than 1,100 public schools in the state. The report didn't make it clear how many of these were high schools. As for the total foreign language offerings, even without considering schools which offer more than one choice, it seemed odd the number didn't add up to 1,100. And whatever happened to the Japanese track that was once offered through the James Island Charter High School's IB program? Too much information was left out of this article.
Then there are the reports that some public high and middle schools say they offer foreign language classes but don't have certified teachers employed to teach them.
Of course, CCSD can take the cake with this with this one. In 2007 it offered French, Spanish and Latin at Buist Academy (with at least one foreign language included in the curriculum for each of its nine grade levels, Kindergarten through 8th grade). It employed four certified foreign langage teachers to carry this out. At the same time Burke High School's middle school program reportedly offered only one foreign langage, Spanish, and then made it available to only a few of its 7th and 8th graders. The real scam was that Burke had no certified foreign language teachers in charge of those classes. To add insult to injury, the school may have granted high school credit to a handful of students who were signed up for the 8th grade class, not because they mastered the material, but because "they were interested" in getting ahead. Too bad CCSD and the toadies who run Burke these days didn't show the same interest in giving these students what they thought they were getting.
In Charleston County they still sell its students short. An elementary school with 400 students can get 3 foreign languages and 4 certified foreign language teachers. While a middle and high school with nearly 700 students can't get the county school leaders to give then even half that. Kids will rise or drop to the level of their expectations. So much for Dr. McGinley's missionary work to the great unwashed here in Charleston. She must have the lowest possible expectations for the majority of us.
Who says "separate but equal" (also known as "separate and unequal") isn't the law of the land anymore? Someone should remind our public school leadership on how their policies are being seen in Charleston County. There's nothing good in this when the opportunity to teach a highly desirable skill like a second language is missed.
Don't tell us it's because of the limited abilities of poor or minority students when a majority of middle school kids in the urban slums of west Africa port cities have more than a working knowledge of as many as six languages. Their multi-lingual skills often include the native tribal languages of both parents, English (the language of the market place) and at least one other European language (often that of a major employer or investor in the region).
These are the facts taken from statistics found among kids in regular schools in those cities, not random numbers from the street or among the children of the ruling elite. These are the present skills of kids who will be competing for jobs against our kids in the not too distant future.
Obviously CCSD isn't preparing a majority of our kids to compete in the global market place. West African port cities, it seems, have a different view of how to better prepare their kids to survive.
Six languages, what a concept! I'd be happy if every one of ours could master two languages. So tell me, why did they take Spanish out of Sanders-Clyde after only one year? And whatever became of all the talk about Latin in the elementary schools to help with improving language arts results on standardized tests?
It will be a long time before we see Mandarin Chinese offered in a mainstream Charleston County public school. As for Arabic or Russian, we can probably just forget it...unless of course, we wake up and shake off these low expectations of those who run our local schools. These are the people we import to run our school system and then pay so much to tell us our kids are dumb and our taxpaying voters are dumber.
Caveat emptor. Bien que nous pourrions être plus sage, après le malheur. Это добродетель знать о ваших конкурентов.
Caveat emptor. [Latin] Buyer beware. [English]
Bien que nous pourrions être plus sage, après le malheur. [French]
Although we might be wiser after the disaster (or bad experience). [English]
Добродетель, чтобы знать конкуренции. (not...Это добродетель знать о ваших конкурентов.) [Russian] Virtue is to know the competition. [English]
知識就是力量。[Mandarin Chinese] Knowledge is power. [English]
We might consider each of these as school district officals and board members begin developing next year's budget.
Like the budgets that preceeded it, the next one will certainly have more cuts to classrooms while protecting administrative fluff. How much of a detriment to the quality of education being offered in Charleston County will be determined by how well the public is informed and how effectively others can respond with better budget alternatives.
The problem is often that our larger community resists the idea that we are a bi-lingual nation (whether "we" acknowledge it or not).
Every elementary school in the US should be teaching English and Spanish concurrently (even if on a pull-out basis like Physical Education, Chorus, etc...).
We can embrace our cultural diversity or continue to ignore that it exists.
Students can then learn a third language in high school if they wish.
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