J. Clarke wrote:
Morris Dovey wrote:

I don't know about LA, but I'm fairly sure that languages other
than English are now common (or at least not rare) in FL, VA, and
CA.

But introduced at what level? If they don't start it until high
school then most students are not going to develop any fluency.

I suspect that about the best that can be hoped for is /preparation/ for
fluency. For most of us, real fluency probably only comes with actual
use of a language. AFAICT, the most effective route to fluency is a
total immersion - and that's difficult to do in a school setting.

I /do/ see the problem. Somehow we need to replace indifferent
instructors with _teachers_ who know their subject,

And we have to get off the backs of the ones who do. I have a friend
who has a PhD in education and is a retired teacher. Every time I
see him he has another horror story passed on to him by one of the
many teachers with whom he has contact. Idiocy like being
disciplined for answering a student's question with anything other
than "look it up" on the basis that they're "supposed to be teaching
students how to learn" for example. I don't know how widespread that
sort of thing is--he seems to think it's pretty commonplace.

From what I've heard, it's at least not unusual.

The
last teacher I dated was good with the kids and good with dealing
with the administration, but quite frankly outside of work she was
NUTS (not going to go into anecdotes) and I suspect that the work had
done it to her.

The thing is if I was going to do something worhty of my Good
Teachers I'd be an author, and in that area, well, I have seen talent
and it is something that I lack.



--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/