So, Gonzalez, which language would you start with? If I am doing business in Germany and I happened to take Italian in high school then I’m out of luck. Or if I am doing business in China which form of Chinese should I take in high school. Do you have a crystal ball as to which language we should put our arms around? How about English? Kids are graduating from schools now and have no idea how to write a decent letter. When you read the newspaper you consistently see quotes from people that are evidence of poor language skills. I’m just saying that in an environment of scarce resources, foreign language is not any more important than art, music, career tech, business (probably less important than business), etc. I don’t see why NEA backs languages when it does not back some of the other subject areas. I could argue that any one of the above areas are as important as learning a language and probably more so in some cases.

Why are language classes essential? My daughter in law and son both work for an international company and neither know a language or have to because the language spoken internationally is ENGLISH! My brother imports ready to wear and he does not need to speak another language either. In a period of scarce resources putting an emphasis on foreign language in high school is old school. Make sure students can read and write in ENGLISH before teaching a foreign language. Foreign language teachers are on the chopping block – so what? Talk to art, music, phys ed, family and consumer sciences, career tech – you won’t get much sympathy there! We live in a small world but unless you are willing to take every language from Croatian to mandarin Chinese, which language are you going to pick? ENGLISH! So the question is- What is your purpose in teaching a foreign language? If it is to become fluent in another language then you have missed the window of opportunity after the 2nd grade. If it is to be a world citizen then teach world cultures in a serious way – not necessarily a foreign language.