Budget woes are hitting districts throughout the state, and the fasces are most likely to fall on the programs that are most vital to students' development: language.  Scarborough, one of the best school districts in the state in one of the richest communities in the state, is considering drastic cuts to programs geared towards its most advanced students, including cutting French, Advanced Placement courses (of course, AP courses aren't required at an advanced school, provided the rigor is replaced with a similarly structured course), and, of course, that most useless subject of them all, Latin.

As happened in my own district eight years ago when the Hampden Latin program was under the knife, students flocked to the school board meeting, including one student who spoke to the board in Latin.  Latin teacher Shane Davis should be proud.  Such efforts do work, as I can personally attest (having saved our middle school language programs last year, and being the direct recipient of the success of a student-organized campaign to save Latin - I was hired a few weeks later), and not all Latin programs are at risk of being cut.  However, it is a disturbing trend, especially given that language is hands down the best vehicle for student learning, and teaching all students language from an early age is the best thing you can do as a district at improving student achievement, and it's reflected in that big test all Maine students must take in their junior year, which is also used to determine school quality, the SAT.  Will we ever learn?  Cuts to language are worse than cuts to social studies, science, math, and reading because of the overall impact language has on the developing mind. One of these days, a school district will see this and give language the weight that it deserves in elementary schools, and that district will soar above all others in achievement.

Here's a link to the video of the WMTW (Channel 8) broadcast of the situation, including Latin 47 seconds in.

Correction: Greely High School is offering both AP and IB courses, not, as originally reported, only IB at the expense of AP.

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admin   |2010-02-05 06:44:08 One of the teachers in the lunch room today at my school suggested that Scarborough is doing this to bring out the crowds of parents, demanding the reinstatement of such programs, and also demanding a tax increase. This way, the school board can justify raising taxes to keep the programs due to overwhelming public outcry, instead of simply increasing taxes without justification. If this is true, it continues the disturbing trend of always subjecting the same activities (language, sports) to the threat of defunding. I wonder what sort of impact this has on teachers, constantly being under the threat of losing their jobs for reasons unrelated to job performance, and on those who want to become teachers in these areas. Reply | Quote

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