I agree with a lot of what's been said here.
Making a language 'mandatory', I think is a big stretch from OFFERING it. Sure, offering it will give students a rewarding opportunity to explore the possibility of learning other languages. I know in my school, one of the pathways to graduation is to take a certain number of foreign language credits. But that is not the only way to graduate. Nor should it be.
I believe that students (AND PARENTS) should take more of an active role in determining what classes they should take to prepare them for college and/or their life's ambitions. Of course, there are a number of courses that need to be taught and should be required. But REQUIRING someone to take a course because of a government grant is just not right. It's the governments way of control the populations behavior.
Not everyone is cut out to speak a foreign language. Just the same way as everyone is not cut out to work on cars. But the gov'ts increasing involvement in the way people run their lives is leading to a nation of people who can't think and do for themselves. Let people live their OWN lives. Don't take away their cookies and replace them with carrots because some are getting too fat. Let people learn on their own. Let PARENTS raise their children. Instead of having a generation of parents that expect teachers to raise the children.
I can see this simple post is developing into a tirade. Just being in the school system and seeing how things are easily brings out my frustration with what's going on in our country.
/rant
