Starting next year the Spanish 1 class will no longer be available to eighth graders at Hercules Middle School.
This is just one of 12 classes on the middle school side to be cut due to staff reduction, lack of interest in the classes, and the advancement of other electives.
“It’s difficult to see the classes being cut, but sometimes we have to cut programs,” Middle School Principal Renee Lama said.
For the past nine years, Hercules Middle School has offered their eighth graders the Spanish 1 class as an advantage over peers and to give their students an edge over the competition from other schools. According to Hercules High Spanish teacher Natasha Biln, to cut the class will put our students at a disadvantage against students from other schools who do provide Spanish 1 and other language classes at middle school such as Crespi Middle School which offers their students French 1, French 2, Spanish 1 and Spanish 2.
“It’s disappointing,” Biln said. “If we’re trying to promote a college and career-ready culture, then learning a second language is very important.”
According to Biln, instead of pushing introductory language classes like Spanish 1 off to high school, the schools should instead offer them earlier to seventh graders.
Implementing language classes in seventh grade wouldn’t be too difficult for Hercules as the High school and Middle school campuses are extremely close and we’ve done it before, for a year, spanish 1 was offered to seventh graders which was taught by me, Biln said
Biln also pointed out that not offering the introductory language classes in middle school will lead to low enrollment for advanced language classes such as Spanish 5 and French 4 in the highschool side.
“It’s definitely a step backwards, not a step forward,” Biln said.
Eliminating our world language classes and taking away that opportunity from the middle schoolers might not be the best idea, especially if most other schools in the district do offer world languages at the middle school level, Biln said.
According to Lama, it is unknown for how long the spanish 1 class will be inaccessible to the middle school students.