On 3/30/09, Pat wrote:
> Our school has decided to phase out German from the
> curriculum. Instead virtual Chinese and Arabic will be
> taught in the middle and high school levels along with
> Spanish. In PA there are minimal language requirements for
> school districts, and they are within the requirements. I
> have been asked to find rationale as to why we need to keep
> the German program. If you have any sites that will lead me
> to information or can give me any rationale that you may
> have needed in your own districts, please help me to save
> our German program. Thank you in advance.

Why is one language more important than another? The question
is - do you still have students interested in taking German? If
not, how can you keep it? If so, how can they abolish it?

I took German from the 3rd grade through the 12th - at the
time, German was the language of all scientific endeavor.
English has replaced it but the German language remains a
wonderful challenge for the mind. You might point out to your
administration that language has been treated in a very faddish
way. German, French and Latin in the 1950s - Russian was
introduced in the 60s during the Cold War. Spanish in the 70s.
Japanese kicked out Russian and then Chinese kicked out
Japanese. Now Arabic.

We treat language in a very faddish way - French teachers are
struggling to find jobs unless they can also speak Spanish.
What other languages has your district abolished? Do we study
language to use it or for the academic endeavor that it is?
If German isn't useful, why ever do we have kids learning
algebra? I don't use Any of the algebra I learned and I don't
even remember the calculus.
Are they still teaching cursive? They'll defend that as useful
but German's not?
Viel Gluck.

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