Fosters – John Shea
“For high school students considering “selective” or “highly selective” four-year universities, the conventional wisdom is generally to push hard on mathematics. Ideally four years of study (or more) that go beyond algebra and geometry into higher level pursuits such as calculus or AP calculus. The conventional wisdom on world languages (studying a second language beyond one’s native tongue) is generally “two or three years.” And we tend to talk about it more like a prison sentence (“doing my two or three years”) than an educational endeavor (“learning another language”). While most of us expect higher level math students to be able to do higher level math when they get to college, very few of us expect students who’ve taken 2 or 3 years of a second language to speak or understand much of it at all after high school. I believe we have our thinking on higher level mathematics and world languages confused – and reversed.”(more)