In comp.mobile.android, on Sat, 21 Sep 2019 08:37:52 -0700, The Real Bev
wrote:

On 09/20/2019 05:36 PM, rbowman wrote:
On 09/20/2019 08:32 AM, Ralph Mowery wrote:
I don't know how it is now, but 50 years ago the high school had 2 main
devisions. One for those that plan on going to college and one for
those that did not . The college prep course had the higher math like
algebra and geometry, where the other courses just had what was called
general math. I assume that many other courses were similar.

Mine had college entrance kids and the business/shop kids. For college
entrance you took 2 years of Latin, 2 years of either German or French,
and more STEM subjects. The business kids took Spanish and typing.

All in all Spanish and typing would have been a lot handier in my life...

Heh. I took Latin, French, Spanish, typing and shorthand in addition to
algebra and geometry (both of which I sucked at). I agree about Spanish
and typing, although French taught me almost everything I know about
formal grammar; Latin provided the rest.

I took typing in summer school. A very worthwhile investment.

I wanted to take shorthand in college but iirc the shorthand teacher
talked me out of it. IIRC, she had a Ph.D. in business education and
taught shorthand at the college level!!

I had 3 years of Latin. Got bronze and silver medals in the state
contests. Didn't take Virgil because it was supposed to be poetry Took
automechanics instead.

Later I learned Spanish by going to Mexico and Central America. I
took _Spanish through pictures_, that was worthless for me, though might
be good for a different personality, and _Spanish in a Nutshell_, a thin
pocket book which was great, all the rules plus a pretty good glossary.
Unfortunately, they dont' sell the Nutshell series anymore. I hope I
can find mine before I go back to Guatemala.