Hey - have a question for parents of kids who are STEM types regarding foreign languages.
My S20 is not good at speaking. He had speech issues and an IEP through 6th grd; and even now he’s hard to understand sometimes. In high school, he’s taking Spanish and he hates it. He gets the vocab and how to do conjugate verbs , but speaking it is another story.
We just noticed that at our state flagship CS requires 4 years of foreign language. Engineering requires only 2! He’s 15; doesn’t know which way he wants to go. But he does not want to take another year of spanish which would be his 4th (they count his MS class).
any thoughts from you all?? do we make him get in that last year of language? Or let him drop it, knowing that he’ll have to take a lot of language in college if he wants to go into CS at state flagship. And he’s stuck with Engineering? Or maybe there’s a combo between majors?
AND- as we’ve never looked at CS anywhere else - what have you all seen about requirements with different colleges? Is 4 yrs standard?
^^ question is about HS coursework for college admittance. state flagship requires 4 yrs foreign language for admittance to CS program; and 2 yrs for engineering. (if he doesnt take enough of it in HS, he’d have to take it at college) Do other CS programs require 4 years in HS? Do we make him take it?
I’m trying to figure out if his speech issues could get him an exemption. At least he or the GC may want to mention it in his app if he has poor grades in it. Could make a decent essay topic.
I would tell him this. I am absolutely awful at foreign languages. I picked a path in college (once I was there) that allowed me to drop my language and not take the last semester. It wasn’t the only reason I took the path I did, but I’d estimate a third of the reason was that. I kick myself today. I should have taken the last semester (and the C I likely would have gotten) and stuck with the major si preferred. But what I really wish I’d done to start with is finished 4 years in HS so I didn’t have to touch it in college at all.
Ugh. I’m sorry you’re in this dilemma. I assume you’ve looked at having the IEP state that his grade in Spanish should reflect his reading and writing skills if he physically cannot make the sounds? The kids that struggle with spoken foreign language take ASL in my state. A year of dual-enrollment ASL counts as two years of high school because the classes are faster paced.
You’ll really just have to check the requirements at the colleges you are considering. My son is a CS major and I don’t think that is typical. He took only 3 years of a language in high school and none of the schools to which he applied (Purdue, Mich, Texas, UIUC, Md, MN, OSU, Auburn) required 4 years in high school.
Maybe this is where you consider an online course, focus on familiarity, reading, writing, rather than speaking. Not sure who you mean counts middle school - this isn’t about the hs, but the college.
I also agree to bite the bullet and get this done in hs, not let these struggles weigh him down in college, what could be high expectations in class…and affect college gpa.
Do it during hs and he and the GC can explain in a positive light, that he kept it up, despite.
The only reason I’d say skip it in hs is if the flagship is sooo gpa dependent for admission and the Spanish grades take him from "maybe " to less likely.
The irony is that, in some ways, thriving in CS or engn isn’t that different from learning languages, how one puts pieces together to problem solve.
Some people with language issues find that American Sign Language works well (and most schools count it as a foreign language). Perhaps you can look into him taking that at a CC if it isn’t offered at your HS.
IMHO, you lay out the options and consequences, and let him decide. If he wants to take an easier path now, knowing that it means the possibility of a harder path later, that doesn’t mean he’s made the wrong choice.
Personally, I’d stick with it in high school, but it’s not me who’d be sticking. My 10th grader had to make a difficult schedule choice this year, and the choice she made was not the one I’d have made, but it appears to have been the right one for her.
I would definitely explore whether his documented difficulties entitles him to an exemption. You may not be able to get a definitive answer, but explore the possibility. I also agree with the above suggestion of Latin, but it sounds like it is too late for that or maybe your school doesn’t even offer it. Depending on the state flagship and its entrance/internal transfer rules, you could always shoot for Engineering as his initial choice and if he dislikes it switch colleges to pursue CS or something else in the Arts & Sciences (and thereby dodge the 4-year language application requirement). This is not a viable option at some schools that restrict changes in major, but many others would have no problem with this.
It sounds like you are talking about the college graduation requirement rather than the college admissions requirement. I suggest parsing the words carefully on the college website, require vs recommend and also consider what might be needed to be competitive for admission, which is another question altogether.
I vote for taking one more year of Spanish in high school if that would be enough to satisfy the college graduation requirement - check whether he would need a test score for proficiency such as SAT2 or AP. If he wants to try a different language, I also vote for Latin.
As someone who was a developer for a while (and as mentioned above, terrible at foreign languages), I really didn’t find this to be true. It didn’t use the same part of my brain, at least.
^ I refer to the part about learning the content, the rules, goals, then putting pieces together. I did find the processes similar, but respect that not all may find it so.
