Several states are looking at proposals that allow Computer Science to be substituted for a foreign language.
I’ve looked at this from several points of view.
First, as a curriculum designer, and I have looked at both the Language TEKS and the Computer Science TEKS and I see that the share very few objectives.
Second, as a former foreign language student and as a computer scientist. I took 4 years of Latin in high school, my choice. I thought it would be cool to be able to read some of my favorite literature in their original language. It was. I also majored in computer science. Learning 4 years of Latin did not help my ability to write software. While it makes it easier for me to spell, and I understand the rules of language better.
I have challenged advocates of this proposal and they support it to increase the enrollment in their classes, as students don’t want to take a foreign language. Personally I find this offensive that anyone would want to take away from someone else’s program to promote theirs.
I don’t expect that most students take a language in order to read a book in its original language, but most students don’t take 4 years of a language, they only take one.
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