There isn’t a language requirement to graduate. Is the district cheating kids out of their full potential getting into some of the best schools in the nation?

We’ve been talking a lot about college lately at Blaine High School. Staff are especially concerned about sophomores.  Next year is a very important year for them as they plan and prepare for college.

Jacob Wolfe a Spanish teacher here at BHS emailed many Minnesota post-secondary school and Ivy League colleges across the country such as Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. They do not have any requirements as far as language is concerned, but a majority of students that attend Ivy League have taken 5+ years of a language, or are bilingual.

This is a problem for high aiming students, because District 11 doesn’t have any language requirements to graduate. It’s especially unfair to students who take American Sign Language (ASL), because there are only three levels of that language here at Blaine.

“7% of District 11’s students are technically prepared to apply at the Ivy League schools” says Wolfe. Let’s say you are a college enroller checking applications. Imagine comparing two applicants, and they have all the same grades, except one has 5 years of a language, and the other has 2. Who is the obvious choice?

On the other hand, Meagan Pass (senior) took 4 years of Spanish at Blaine High School and applied to go to college at the U of M and got in. She is planning on majoring in human resources (in Spanish). There is a 2 year language requirement at the U, but it is not a deciding factor. You can take language classes at the college if you get accepted. Benefits of taking foreign language in high school are to increase global understanding, to improve employment potential, and to make travel easier and more enjoyable. Some jobs that require multiple languages include a translator, a language teacher, phonology, discourse analysis, airlines, gaming, marketing, government, and law enforcement.

Some of the benefits of going to college are:  safer jobs, higher paying jobs, and learning and growing as a person.