<p>I've followed the discussion about foreign languages with interest. We're interested in languages which are not the "crowd pleasers." Researching schools for 2009-10, I've noticed schools are adding Chinese, and frequently, to make room, dropping other languages.</p>
<p>For example, "The Greene's Guide to Boarding Schools," as of 2006, lists Greek as an offering at Taft, but Taft's own website does not list Greek.</p>
<p>I'm assuming most schools will keep Latin, French, and Spanish, if they offer them. Has anyone heard of substitutions in the offing at any schools?</p>
<p>More then likely, either the books information was wrong, or Taft dropped the course because they did not have enough interest. Not because it was a "substitute for another language."</p>
<p>With all respect, I do believe that one may speak of curricular choices at private schools in terms of substitutions. I am not trying to single Taft out in terms of changes in curriculum. I believe some schools at one point offered German, Russian, or Japanese, for example, in addition to Latin, French and Spanish, but many have changed their language offerings. I know of students who refuse to consider a school which does not offer Chinese, for example. I seem to be the "lucky" mother of a child who's reluctant to consider schools that don't offer Greek (or another unpopular language, which I'd prefer not to specify).</p>
<p>Language courses in particular are expensive in terms of class size and teacher time. Does it make sense to offer a class in Attic Greek to 3 students, when the same instructor could be teaching Latin to a section of 10? Instructors are not interchangeable; while a school may require a math teacher to teach different levels, you can't require a Russian teacher to teach Japanese. I assume that the schools which want to offer Chinese face the choice of adding staff, an expensive proposition in the long term, or changing staff. If the Russian teacher retires, does the school hire a new Russian teacher, or take the opportunity to hire a Chinese teacher? It is quite possible that schools which don't list a language choice may allow a student to pursue it through independent study, but such arrangements are less reliable than a listed course.</p>
<p>Please understand that I don't mean this as a criticism of any school. Time and money are not infinite, and a well run school will choose to concentrate on the areas which make sense for the school.</p>
<p>When researching schools, I did notice several schools (smaller and not on the "top ten" radar of most on this board) that were only offering one or two languages and/or phasing out languages offered previously.</p>
<p>I think you are correct -- BS is a suppy and demand type of business and if demand for a certain language is low, it doesn't pay to offer it. If demand is high (think Chinese and now Arabic) you will see it offered.</p>
<p>If you son is interested in Greek, I believe there are a few schools offering it as part of a Classics department (I am thinking St. Paul's). If a school has offered Greek in the past, it might be at least worth checking to see if it might be offered again or as an independent study.</p>
<p>My school has added Chinese without dropping another language (French, Spanish & Latin). The Latin teacher will also offer Greek if there are interested students. Students who have taken at least three years of a language offered, or who have already demonstrated proficiency, can take language courses for free and for credit at the nearby college. This adds Japanese, Russian and German to the offerings. (The college also offers Italian but their students get first priority and the classes are usually full.)</p>
<p>At this point, I'm looking to narrow our list. If we insisted that our child should attend a school which offers the two desired languages, it would compress our list to seven schools. However, those seven schools would be heavy on the usual suspects, i.e. nearly impossible for mere mortals to be admitted. Expanding the list to either one of the two languages would bring us to 17, which may be too many?</p>
<p>At any rate, I think I'll go back and investigate whether or not schools offer Chinese, on the theory that if they do, their language offerings are likely to remain stable. If they don't have Chinese yet, we should ask at the interview if they plan to add Chinese, and whether they would drop other languages at that time.</p>
<p>Sbergman, thank you for your comment. You're right, there may be schools expanding their language offerings, and I should consider the effect of cooperative efforts with neighboring schools and colleges.</p>