What was the socioeconomic status of the area surrounding the school?
and if you can remember: Were the classes a requirment?
This poll is related to this GD thread about schools requiring students to learn spanish. Feel free to answer the poll for your children. It was surprising to see people who were surprised that elementary schoolers were taught foreign languages (for some reason I always assume that most Americans had the same school experiences as me).
The first school I went to, we were did Italian from prep (first year of schooling, 4.5 - 5.5 year olds)
The second school I went to offered French from grade 3 onwards (it was, in fact compulsory), and then year 7 was compulsory French and Latin, year 8 was compulsory for any two of [French | Latin | German | Indonesian | Russian | Japanese], year 9 was compulsory for any one of the same 6 choices (but it had to be one of the ones you did in year 8) and from year 10, it was entirely optional (but with the same 6 choices).
THe first one was Koonung Heights Primary School (no longer exists). Surrounding area was middle class, mainly professional people.
The second was PLC - junior school from prep - 6, senior school from 7 - 12. Private girls school - the local area makes no difference - people came long distances (including some boarders). Most parents were pretty well off.
After reading the GD thread, I’d like to add that in high school, students were allowed to choose a foreign language; I have no idea what the choices were at this particular school, but not everyone was forced to take Spanish.
In sixth grade, when Spanish class was required, it was just something for us to do while our teacher prepared lectures and corrected homework assignments and stuff. It was very, very basic; colors, animals, the lyrics to La Bamba, etc.
By seventh grade, the choices were French, German, Spanish and Latin.
It was a very mixed school district. It encompassed some very wealthy neighborhoods, some solidly middle-class and some frankly dirt-poor–people who lived in barely more than shacks along the river.
Two years of a foreign language were required to graduate.
Grade 4
French
Oakville, Ontario, Canada, 1971
Wealthiest community in nation
An experiment – only offered to two students (time have changed for the better since then)
It was a mid-city public school, but it was also a gifted site, so you had people of all economic backgrounds.
Requirement
Once we started middle school in 6th grade, however, our options were opened. We were given a variety of languages based on which school we attended - the one I went to in 6th grade had French, Spanish, German and Latin for sure and may have had others. We had a number of semesters we were required to take.
Spanish and French, four years of each, high school level
Semi-rural southwestern Pennsylvania, 1995-99
Middle class basically, though like TVeblen’s school it encompassed a wide range of different classes; I was middle class though
Two years of the same language were required to graduate; they recommended you take it during freshman and sophomore year, which I did (I picked Spanish)
5th grade. Spanish was required. In sixth grade, one semester of Japanese and one semester of Latin were required, you got to choose which one to take in seventh grade. At least three years of classes were required to graduate from high school.
Spanish, Japanese, Latin
upstate NY, in the early 90s
Mixed area that was mostly middle class.
In the late 90s they started requiring kids to take Spanish from first to fifth grade.
Central New Jersey, I was in the 7th grade around 1982-1983.
This is sort of a trick question for me. The area surrounding the school was farmland. Pure farmland. And it was a 15 minute drive from my house, which was in between the part of the town that was considered ‘developed’ and the farmland.
Overall, the town was middle class/upper middle class (lots of second generation NYC Italian and Jewish families) and Farm Folk. It was quickly becoming a retirement community mecca as well.
7th grade
Spanish and French (Spanish, French, German, and sometimes Latin at the high school level)
Howard County, MD; late '90s
The classes were not compulsory in middle school–in fact, you could only take them if you got a B or above in Reading in 6th grade. In high school there was a specific tech ed track for avoiding foreign languages, but it was kind of a pain to follow and was used only by those who seriously hated languages and had absolutely no desire to go to college.
