At my high school you needed 2 communication credits, foreign languages counted, so did drama, journalism, year book, cheer squad (this always puzzled me as it was not even a class), and others I am sure I am forgetting as it was 30ish years ago.
At my high school you needed 2 communication credits, foreign languages counted, so did drama, journalism, year book, cheer squad (this always puzzled me as it was not even a class), and others I am sure I am forgetting as it was 30ish years ago.
disregardable@lemmy.zip 15 hours ago
11 states have foreign language requirements, but really we shouldn’t even count them. A single 20-30 minute class per day is not going to achieve any proficiency in a foreign language. The only way for an American to actually achieve foreign language proficiency is to go to a 1/2 and 1/2 school.
nocturne@slrpnk.net 15 hours ago
I took 3 1/2 years of French in high school, but barely used it after graduation. I do wish we had more language learning in school.
In elementary school half of our day was taught in Spanish, but an ignorant parent (my mother) complained so loudly that the project was scrapped after only a couple months.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 15 hours ago
US classes are 20-30 minutes long?
stumu415@lemmy.zip 4 hours ago
Because all you need to know is in the Bible. Earth is 6000 years old. Dinosaurs are an invention from the woke left. Jesus is white. That’s the curriculum for ya.
Fondots@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
It varies a lot from one school to another, at mine we did “block scheduling” so you had 4, 90 minute classes a day, and different classes 1st and 2nd semester
Which had its pluses and minuses. You could definitely get a lot more instruction time in during a class that way
But for something like a language, if you’re unlucky and your schedule works out that you had it first semester one year and second the next, you’re basically going a whole year where you may not have practiced those language skills.
Other schools around me I think usually had 45 or 60 minute classes, but sometimes electives which might include language might have gotten shorter timeslots than core classes
igmelonh@feddit.online 14 hours ago
No. My high school was 6 55-minute classes with 5 minute breaks between to get to your next class, plus a 45-minute lunch. 7 classes if you elected to take another class starting at 7am instead of the usual 8am. School was just under 8 hours long with 7 classes.
treadful@lemmy.zip 15 hours ago
No
disregardable@lemmy.zip 15 hours ago
Consequence of “general education”. School is only 6 hours per day. Reading, math, science, history, and gym are all required. That’s 5. Want to add health, sex ed, art, music, foreign language, programming, speech and debate, driver’s ed? The more you add, the more you have to shorten the classes. My school had a lot of curricular options, so my classes were short. If a school has less to offer, they may have longer classes.