Orange Baron

Which is the more defensible proposed cut?

JV Sports in High School

I feel terrible. This will be the second consecutive round in this tournament in which I have been thrown a softball as a topic.  In this type of economy, the need for budget cuts is both present and pressing on everyone’s mind. In light of such pressing concerns, it is important to keep in perspective the basic tenets of education that make Montgomery County schools some of the greatest in the country, if not the world.

B-CC’s official credo is to “learn, think, serve and be responsible.” To be able to learn, think, serve and display responsibility in our ever-more global world, our students need to be able to communicate in the international discourse. At the foundation of this communication is the education of foreign language, an area of study which not only allows our students to exist as responsible, global representatives of Montgomery County, of Maryland and of the United States, but enables our students to continue their journey of education outside of the bounds of the English language, be it a semester in Madrid, a conversation with Parisian professors, or merely reading some of the classics in their original Latin.

As school system, our job is to prepare students for success in an ever-evolving intellectual and professional universe. In the absence of school-sponsored junior varsity or even varsity sports, our students have already demonstrated that they are more than willing to provide for themselves (as is evidenced by our Ultimate Frisbee club team, one of the largest of its kind). Without a strong foreign language program here in Montgomery County, however, who will teach our students the Portuguese they need to perform community service in Brazil, or the Chinese that will help them communicate with clients in Hong Kong?

 Our students’ foreign language education cannot fall to the wayside. As a school system that produces International Baccalaureate students with an eye toward a global future, foreign language should be one of the last programs cut, certainly after junior varsity athletics.

 vs. 

Lavender Baron

Which is the more defensible proposed cut?

Foreign Languages  in Elementary Schools

With all the talk of terrorism, AIDS, and super-germs going around these days, one would not think something as trivial as exercise could drastically improve one’s lifespan. But there is a killer out there that was not created in any lab, one far more dangerous than any terrorist. What is this silent, indiscriminate killer? Heart disease.   

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, claiming over 600,000 lives each year. And what is the best way to prevent heart disease? Exercise.

So when considering whether to cut funding for elementary school foreign language classes or junior-varsity sports, the answer seems obvious. With nearly one out of every seven American adolescents considered overweight, it is clear that what young adults need is not more foreign language lessons, but more physical activity. That is not to say that learning a foreign language is not important; however, by the time the average student has graduated from high school, he has had at least five years’ worth of foreign language classes. Add to this the foreign language requirements mandated by most American universities, and it is not difficult to see that students do not need extra class time in elementary school to learn a language, especially when such instruction comes at the expense of junior-varsity sports.

It is true that very few teenagers who play high school sports will grow up to play professionally, but that does not mean J.V. sports are a waste of money. Eliminating those teams would result in a meritocracy in which only the most athletic students are allowed to play sports for their schools, leaving the other students less-than-encouraged to stay physically active. As such, it is paramount that funding for J.V. sports remain intact.