Why are public schools in the United States not encouraging/enforcing foreign language classes?

I'm a High School Junior (from the East Coast) that is currently in his second year of French. In all honesty, last year I didn't care about my French class and just wanted to get a B+ in that class the easiest way possible. However, after playing video games with other teenagers from Quebec and France I fell in love with learning languages as learning a language is really challenging, but also, one of the most rewarding experiences in my life when you finally improve and stop stuttering.

Also, since this pandemic, I started conversing with more and more people from foreign countries, especially from European countries and Quebec (not a country I know), so that I may be able to practice my French and play video games with them (I got deadly afraid of French 2 because it was my worse class and I slacked off in that class). With this, I learned that one of the main reasons why we Americans are so hated by the rest of the world is because of our disdain towards other languages. All over the world, kids are learning foreign languages as early as Kindergarten, while in America most students only take a foreign language class in High School, but even still most of my friends and classmates just drop the subject once they fulfilled the graduation requirements. Which in my opinion is really depressing as individuals in other countries will go out of their way to spend thousands of dollars on English classes/tutoring; or get harassed by Americans for not being able to speak English when playing online video games, while we as Americans aren't even willing to spend more than 1 to 2 years in a foreign language class, which is free if you go to a public school.

Though, I do believe that Spanish or Chinese would be a better language for most students that are living in the United States to learn since America has a large population of Hispanic and Asian immigrants and migrant students/workers. Nevertheless, learning a foreign language class- I think - will help students and children of my generation and future generations will help in understanding the struggles of learning a new language, which will thereby have them become more empathetic toward individuals where English might not be their first language.

Additionally, there are major job opportunities for individuals who are bi or multilingual, which will be a huge asset for them in the future. Also, getting qualified foreign language tutors can cost thousands - potentially even millions, while all public schools are offering free foreign language classes from qualified teachers with real and legitimate college degrees in that language.

Sorry, if this is really long or seems over the top! I just really wanted to voice out my opinions as I want to take higher-level French courses for two reasons. First: to improve my very sad level of French and second: to prove to colleges and myself that I am capable of learning a foreign language and no subject will be a weakness for me. However, as I hear the French of students from a higher level French class, hearing them complain about their class, having my friends say that no one in those higher lever classes actually knows the language really pisses me off since I could've been in their places actually taking advantage of that higher-level French class. It is not just me, another one of my friends who played video games with French speakers wishes to be able to retake a French class as he realized he didn't take advantage of that class to the fullest and he could've improved his French even farther if he just did more than the bare minimum (he is also one of the few students in our school to actually be able to have full conversations in French). We both agree that it is really aggravating hearing the complaints of other students toward their French class and hearing their French as we both wish we were able to be in their places and take that class.

Submitted November 12, 2020 at 10:30AM by AtomicSkunk https://ift.tt/3lrIBPp