The Future of French

“Bonjour classe!” 

It’s a phrase that greets students when they enter the French classroom. For as long as anyone can remember, French was always one of the World Language options that middle and high school Masterman students could choose to take. Now, there is a very real possibility that French class will disappear from Masterman. 

This problem mainly arose when the beloved French teacher Mr. Gallagher retired early in 2022 due to pressing family concerns. He taught French at Masterman for at least fifteen years, and he was the teacher that essentially started many Masterman students' French learning path. When he suddenly left, it shook the foundation of the French course path at Masterman. Not only was there now a teacher vacancy in the French department, but the missing teacher was the one that was responsible for teaching all of Masterman’s introductory French classes. The result? During this 2022-2023 school year, there are currently no French classes for middle school students. Essentially, the French curriculum has been cut from the middle school. 

For now, there are still French classes in high school, with Ms. Heimann being the only French teacher left teaching them. She now bears the great responsibility of not only instructing high school French, but conducting the entire Masterman French curriculum as well. Ms. Heimann has taught French 3 and 4 at Masterman for 3 years now, but the situation may be changing soon.

When Mr. Gallagher’s departure opened up a French teacher vacancy, that hole wasn’t filled. Instead, after many years of only having French and Spanish as the World Language options, Masterman saw an entirely new curriculum appear—Chinese.  It was a major welcome change for Masterman as a whole. Now, many are realizing that there is a huge possibility that Chinese might replace French as a World Language offering, and Ms. Heimann will leave Masterman with the removal of the French program.

According to Ms. Heimann, the loss of French would be a big blow to the Masterman community, because it would “make the World Language program substandard for a college prep school.” It would also lower the exposure to other cultures besides American culture, and would affect the diversity of thought amongst the Masterman community.

Ms. Heimann is not alone in that sentiment. Many students expressed their worry about the loss of French. “French is cool and everyone should have the opportunity to take it,” said Bronte Short (11-3). Another student, Molly Hatfield (11-3) said,“I find French class really beneficial, and I feel like I learn a lot. I think it would be really disappointing if it got cut out of the curriculum, and would put students at a disadvantage.” “I feel like French class forces me to utilize an underused part of my brain,” student Kaddy Ren (10-3) said. 

To bring the truth to light, an interview with the principal, Dr. Payne, was conducted for the purpose of discussing the pressing issue. “In an ideal world, we would have many languages, but our school size unfortunately doesn’t allow that,” Dr. Payne said. “As a result, we have less variety, and we have to make tough decisions.” According to Dr. Payne, the future of French is being discussed amongst the school administration. 

In particular, the administration is taking into consideration that there were instances of students who wanted to take Spanish but couldn’t due to the Spanish class roster being filled up. In comparison, French classes were never filled by request, and students that had selected Spanish as their preference were assigned to take French by way of a randomized lottery process. Despite the French curriculum being one half of Masterman’s language programs for several years, when compared to Spanish, in the past, French simply wasn’t in as much demand.

Another thing that the administration is considering is how not only French, but all World Language classes interact with the other elective offerings. Only two years of World Language in high school are needed to get a high school diploma, but students must take at least three years of World Language at Masterman, which impedes their ability to take another subject. If students weren’t forced to take these three years of World Language, it could open new doors to other, more specialized electives, or even classes at the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) beyond Discrete Mathematics. 

In summation, the administration is possibly considering changing the entire World Language system at Masterman as everyone knows it. However, due to the size of the school and the smaller demand, the French curriculum is most likely to fade out if and when these changes come to the school. 

Dr. Payne says that the administration is in a tough spot trying to consider an option that will satisfy the most people. Yet, no matter what the statistics say, the loss of French would definitely sadden many students, as the French curriculum has undoubtedly had a huge impact on the Masterman students enrolled in it. Both Mr. Gallagher and Ms. Heimann did an amazing job bringing the French language and culture to life in Masterman classrooms. Students fondly remember Mr. Gallagher’s favorite French songs “Il Neige” and his French proverbs. Likewise, students have enjoyed Ms. Heimann’s interactive group projects like creating original fairy tales in French.

Hopefully, the administration will take everything into consideration and make a decision that will make most Masterman families happy—and hopefully, that decision won’t mean la fin for the longstanding Masterman French curriculum.