Anyone that is exempt from foreign language in HS

<p>Due to my dd language based LD she may be able to get exempt from a foreign language for HS...wondering if she should take the exemption or try the foreign class. Currently she is having a difficult time with her foreign language class but I'm not sure if it's due to her LD or the fact that this teacher isn't great (all parents in mainstream school agree with this statement about teacher). </p>

<p>Does her school offer ASL as a language? It has been the perfect solution for my DS. It would have been so difficult for him to succeed in foreign language class as he has language/reading/writing issues. Our state recognizes ASL as an accepted language for public colleges also.</p>

<p>we are in the same boat. heard latin was an easier path at our school. latin 1 proved so. but latin 2 not. wish we would have done spanish, as there are some “blow off” schools in our city that you can take the course at in the summer and transfer the credits in. missed that boat but maybe you can find that?</p>

<p>We concluded in middle school that our severely dyslexic son couldn’t do foreign languages. He couldn’t do Latin in middle school and after a semester of Spanish in middle school pronounced “mas” as “mass.” He couldn’t hear the sounds in Spanish and couldn’t spell well enough for Latin. I had a conversation with the head of foreign languages at his HS, who said, knowing my son, he could take the lower track Spanish course, work very hard, get all As (that is what he does) and leave after three years knowing no Spanish. He recommended against wasting our son’s time. So, against our son’s wishes at the time, no language in HS.</p>

<p>It may or may not have hurt him. Rolling the tape forward, he got into several very good schools including Ivies. There is some probability that not taking a language contributed to him not getting into a couple of schools (one my alma mater) but these schools have such a low percentage of admits that it could have been lots of other random things as well. He chose a school without any foreign language requirement and did extremely well in college. Rolling the tape forward a little farther, he co-founded a tech company and became its CEO. A bit later brought in a senior executive much more capable of growing it and started grad school jointly in data science and an MBA at a prestigious school. At the end of the day, I doubt he could be much better off. </p>

<p>But, in some states, the state universities require lanaguage for admission. If so, I’d be looking for the kind of plan that @nettiK4137‌ suggested.</p>

<p>Some schools allow pass/fail for foreign language.</p>

My daughter had great luck with German. The spelling made sense to her in a way English doesn’t and it was very laid back.

My son was exempt from taking a foreign language in HS due to his LD. His guidance counselor addressed this in the letter that was sent with college applications. DS was accepted at all 6 colleges he applied to.