The facts: My daughter is starting her senior year at a private girl’s school (she has been there for nine years); she has taken German her first three years in high school and is now ready for German IV. Her plans (at least this week) are to get a degree in German (hopefully at Gettysburg - anyone go there?) We found out last Friday (classes start this Wednesday) that the German IV class (3 girls) was going to be combined with the German III class (5 girls) and that both classes would be taught as a “multi-level” class.
Additional fact(s):
Last year’s German teacher has moved on and has been replaced by a part-time German teacher, so my assumption is that if the school was to have both a German III and a German IV class they would have to shell out more $$$.Last year, the German IV class had only one girl in it.Classes in other subjects (for example, AP Physics) have low enrollments (some with only a single student).To the best of my knowledge, no other classes are combined.
The tuition is not negligible (approaching what we will have to pay for college); the school touts the “small class” and “individual attention” aspects of what it has to offer.
So, do I roll over and just say OK and act understanding, or do I hold out for some alternative (for example, German classes at one of the local colleges, add German IV back in, or something else)? My thought is that if the school allows a student to have three years of a language, it is obligated, to some extent, to continue the process and allow the student to have the full four year course. I’m for hanging tough. Or, should I be more understanding?
I think you need to call the head of school (principal/headmaster/??) on this one and get more information. The red flag, in my mind, is the new part-time German teacher plus the combination class. If they only did one change or the other, then it wouldn’t be as concerning. You need to explain to the headmaster that you are concerned that your daughter won’t get anything out of this class and that the new teacher won’t be able to teach at a level that will challenge her. He/She should be able to address your concerns. It is important to put them on notice and let them know this is a concern for you. You are paying tuition and this is one of the reasons you are doing so. Raise all of these points and see what the headmaster says.
My kids also go to a private school and I have found the headmaster and the various department heads to be very good at addressing problems such as this.
Well, that is the game plan for tomorrow morning. Meeting with the head of school, the upper school director, and the head of the language department. Paying the kind of tuition we do, I don’t think it is acceptable to be shortchanged in two ways: we are not getting what we supposedly signed up for and (2) my daughter is not getting the optimal preparation for college level German. Details at noon tomorrow…
Takl to the higher ups and see what you can get done. If it is a bust gos Spanish. A kid today who learns spanish will be light years ahead of her piers in the buisness world. Take it from a Texan, Spanish is the new English. All the years of Euro snobs turning thier nose at us for knowing only one language is over. Those who speak Spanish and English will be ahead in the future.
I don’t think that it is necessarily a bad thing. I went through 3-1/2 years of French in High School. My experience was that the difference between French III and French IV was some vocabulary and the level of immersion in the language and culture. I can envision that this could be effectively done as a combined class. Especially if you consider the possibilty that there could be a tutoring possibility of the Ger.IV students to Ger.III students. I think that at that level teaching/demonstrating is a superb way of improving your skills.
Personally, before I approached the situation negatively and with guns-a-blazing, I would investigate the format of the class and what the thinking is behind the change. Just because it is a money saving thing doesn’t necessarily mean that quality has been sacrificed.
Before I would study Spanish, I would see if there is a chinese language class. I think that someone who becomes proficient in that language, especially with a German background, you could write your own ticket in the business world.
Let me preface this, my first language is German. When my family moved to the US I had a year of high school left, which I attended at a well to do public school. All of the students and teachers taking German were excited to test their skills, but I have to say even the teachers German was mediocre at best. When I got to college, I had a few friends in the German department. Again several of the students who majored in the language were very weak at it.
With that said, try to get the school your daughter attends to actually follow through with what they set out to do, which is to provide your daughter with a complete “set” of classes on a topic she intends to make her major. Being a graduate student right now, I have no input on how to do that in detail.
More importantly, I think you should try and provide the means for her to let her spend the summer after her senior year in high school in Germany, and this is key, WITHOUT or as little contact to native English speakers as possible! That will make the difference how easy the courses in college will be to her, definitely it will be of much bigger importance compared to if she will get German IV or German III.5 in her senior year of high school.
I had a girlfriend who attended Gettysburg. Great school - very rigorous, very expensive; not a lot of fluff for classes. She was a history major and her program focused heavily on western thought. (Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, etc). Eventually she transferred to Swarthmore where the academics were strong, but the focus was much more left-leaning. She thought Swarthmore was much ‘easier’. It’s an exciting time for her - and you.
For the German class, you might want to have your daughter check the Gettysburg course catalog/grad requirements and have her check with the head of the German department (or whatever) to see what the dept head would recommend. This is her gig. Get her involved.
I went to Gettysburg and graduated in 1990. It was actually was harder and took more studying than either my masters or PhD. It is full of mid atlantic suburban kids- most know how to work hard and play hard, and back when I was there most were getting quite a bit of financial aid. I got a lot because I was a hick from upstate NY and I balanced out the suburbanites.
Great place to be from Labor Day to Memorial Day when there aren’t so many tourists. When you visit your daughter there is good running in the battlefields- even if you aren’t a history major you pick up quite a bit of history. I actually first started riding there my senior year- the battle fields are fun when there isn’t that much traffic. Be sure to visit the Devils Den and Spanglers Spring areas of the battle field, and it is a nice 3+ mile loop from the Campus up around the Peace Light and Buford and Doubleday Avenue- see if you can find the little trails behind the Peace Light and off Doubleday Ave (double points if you find the monument in the woods off Doubleday.