Our Changing Language Department

Changes in Masterman’s admissions policy are bringing about adjustments in the school’s curriculum as well. Few departments are affected as heavily as the language department, which will undergo a total curriculum overhaul in order to enable the new admission criteria of not requiring a year of language prior to 9th grade. Historically, Masterman middle school students have taken Spanish Level 1 or French Level 1 in 8th grade, Level 2 in freshman year, Level 3 in sophomore year, Level 4 in junior year, and an optional AP elective during their senior year. While the matter is still being discussed and debated, the changes proposed by the language department thus far include shifting the course levels up a year. In this scenario, freshmen would take Level 1, sophomores would take Level 2, and so on. “There will not be 8th-grade language classes next year [for current middle school students]” says Ms. Gentlesk, head of Masterman’s language department. In order to provide the AP class as an option for seniors, students would skip directly from Level 3 to the intensive AP course. Another solution would provide seniors with the option to take Level 4, so that “students can continue the language without having the stress of the AP,” explains Gentlesk. Students who want to take the AP course will need to work hard throughout their first three years of language classes: “They must know from the beginning that they are going to have to do more work outside of the class. You need to really be doing a lot each year in order to make the jump. It is very intense to do three years and then go on to the AP. We are also trying to balance making students not too stressed. Those are some concerns in the total redoing of the program,” Gentlesk expands.

There were many ideas floated when teachers attempted to restructure the language program, but a consistent challenge was the limited number of teachers and classroom space. There is a teacher shortage across the country and language teachers are very much affected by this. “There’s not a lot of people looking to take these jobs right now. All of us have a full 5 classes with 30 kids in each. Teachers need to be used to their full extent all the time. If we had a bigger school with more classrooms and we had more teachers, we would have it for the 8th grade and for incoming 9th graders who have never had language before, but we don’t have the teaching staff to do that, “ says Gentlesk. Creative ideas included an intensive summer program for incoming students that have not had a year of language, but that plan is blocked by the district because of accessibility. Additionally, students could be in classes with mixed grades, similar to how certain math classes are run. This idea was dropped because it would overcomplicate the schedule and would probably not be feasible with the number of available classrooms.

Many challenges arise when students only begin to learn a language in high school. Even starting in 8th grade is considered very late. “It's a very American thing that we start late,” adds Mme. Heimann, who teaches French. She continues, “People are much less comfortable in their bodies by that point than they are in 5th and 6th and even for some 7th graders. From the psychology aspect, the later into adolescence you get when you start a language, the less likely you are to put yourself out there because you already have the feeling of ‘everyone’s looking at me and judging me’ and now you are going to start sounding like a three-year-old which not everyone is okay with.”

In theory, Masterman could require only two years of language in high school, which is what the district mandates to graduate. When asked about the importance of learning a language in high school, Mme. Heimann said the following: It's not just speaking another language, it's thinking about other cultures and the study of culture itself. Thinking about your own culture, opening your mind to different ways of living and being. That is so important, not just the skill. I think it helps you understand yourself better.” “I know it's hard for some students that they have to take four years” adds Gentlesk, “But I think it ends up being a good thing, it helps the students in the long term. And when they apply to college, the colleges that Masterman students want to go to, they want to see 4 years of language.”

Overall, changes like this in the language department invoke similar conversations as were made to the math department. Why is Masterman cutting their program rather than other schools receiving the resources they need to build up their programs? “A lot of suburban schools have the language in 8th grade. I would rather see the building of the whole program [rather than the shortening of ours],” says Gentlesk. As for Masterman’s program, “we have to come up with a new program that will hopefully serve students well.”