French Class Being Phased Out at Overton High School (Clarksville: job openings, live)

[skyblueNashville]

I just found out that French classes at John Overton High School are being phased out. This is a principal-made decision. He said it had to do with bugeting and low numbers wanting to take French. I know that 136 students are in French classes now, which doesn't sound "low" to me. In my opinion it's a huge mistake to remove a major world language from the choices offered at Overton. I would like to somehow inform other parents in the Overton cluster of this change. If you are a parent in this cluster or know someone who might be concerned, please let me know via direct message or post back to this thread.
Thanks!

[marthamoore]

Yikes! I'm sorry to hear this. I recently moved here from LA, where I was a French teacher before having kids. Many of the French programs there have been phased out in favor of Mandarin. I thought this side of the country might not be so quick to dump French, and that I'd have some job opportunities when I'm ready to go back. Do you know if French is being replaced by another language?

[Steve_TN]

Ils se débarrassent de français? Je ne peux pas le croire. C'est horrible et répugnant. Quelque chose doit être fait pour empêcher cela. Je suis dans les bras!

[Huckleberry3911948]

lots of cut backs. its happening here too.

[skyblueNashville]

Thanks for the support. I realize cutbacks have to happen, but I can't believe that's where they choose to cut. I'm not sure what they are keeping. I'm doing more research and trying to find out.

[Kansaichick]

In this day of the global age, it's truly sad when the first things to go during budget cuts are the fine arts, music, sports, languages, and anything culturally related

[jabogitlu]

I see this as Overton conserving resources so that language and other arts classes can be offered.

Rather than offer six languages in the days of budget cut backs, perhaps it will be better for the student body overall to have two (Castellano and Mandarin) languages with rich resources. And while French is a language of arts and culture, Spanish and Chinese are languages of business and trade.

[JMT]

Originally Posted by jabogitlu

I see this as Overton conserving resources so that language and other arts classes can be offered.

Rather than offer six languages in the days of budget cut backs, perhaps it will be better for the student body overall to have two (Castellano and Mandarin) languages with rich resources. And while French is a language of arts and culture, Spanish and Chinese are languages of business and trade.

Tennessee does more trade with French-speaking countries than with Chinese-speaking countries. Tennessee does more trade with Canada than the next five countries combined, and every official Canadian document must be in English and French. A third of Canadians speak French. In all, 41% of Tennessee's exports are to countries where French is spoken.

The province of Québec alone is the US's 6th largest trading partner.

Of all the foreign-owned companies in Tennessee, 1/5 are French-owned. From 2008 to 2009 the number of French-owned companies in Tennessee grew by 34 percent from 138 to 185. And that doesn't include Nissan which is partially owned by France's Renault (Nissan's president is French) and the new $1.2 billion semiconductor plant in Clarksville which is a joint venture with France's Total-Fina oil company.

At the US State Department, the number one foreign language requirement is French. Currently, 92 job openings at the State Department require French. Only one requires Chinese, and 36 require Spanish. French, along with English (and NOT Chinese), is the official working language at the UN, NATO, the IOC, the European Union, UNESCO, and the International Red Cross.

There are 28 countries in the world where French is an official language. Another 32 countries are at least partially francophone and are members of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.

France has the world's 3rd largest military and has the world's 2nd largest defense industry.

I have lived in China. I started learning French in China. There are two foreign language television stations run by the Chinese, one in English and the other in French (Chinese people speaking French). Globally English and French are, by far, the most popular foreign languages. English and French are also the only languages spoken as native languages on every continent.

I love and adore China and go there at least once a year. But for a high school in Nashville to get rid of French in favor of Chinese is grossly shortsighted. Even Nashville's hometown Purity Dairies is owned by a French company, Danone.

[BirdieBelle]

WOW. That should cover it!

[skinem]

Originally Posted by skyblueNashville

Thanks for the support. I realize cutbacks have to happen, but I can't believe that's where they choose to cut. I'm not sure what they are keeping. I'm doing more research and trying to find out.

Do you have a suggestion for the principal as to what he should cut? No matter what he chooses (assuming he's having to cut something) it will impact some teacher and somebody's kid. I would hope the principal has done due diligence in looking for money savings and would think he has as staff and programs are usually the last thing to go.