Spanish 3 Killed All of His Spirit.
After struggling mightily in Honors Spanish 3 early in the school year, Shane eeked out a B in the class. He was thrilled – and more than ready to quit.
Shane’s teacher, who worked with him to bring his grade up from a C in the fall, went on maternity leave in January – and Shane thrived with the substitute. Sometimes he even got A’s – but he didn’t ever feel comfortable.
Shane’s teacher came back for one week at the end of the year, and sent me this note after school ended:
Hello, I just returned from maternity leave and I was so happy to see that Shane did well while I was gone. I’m happy to report that he earned a B for both Quarter 4 and Semester 2 in Spanish 3. I’m proud of him and see that he has made growth in his writing in Spanish and in his vocabulary.
I hope he will take what he has learned about himself as a learner and the language skills he acquired this year as he continues with Spanish next year. I encourage him to spend some time over the summer doing some things to brush up on his Spanish so that he doesn’t lose what he has gained and so that he can continue to catch up on vocabulary he didn’t learn in middle school…. Hope you all have a great summer!
Unfortunately, Shane had already given up. I wrote this response to Shane’s teacher:
Thanks for all your efforts with Shane. He was so gung-ho at the beginning of the year, ready to learn and speak Spanish. He wanted so badly to be able to speak the language.
Unfortunately, one year in Spanish 3 killed all of his spirit. He studied hard, got a B, and decided that he would never be able to speak Spanish. We were on vacation when you sent this email, and we ran into someone who could only speak Spanish. We needed to ask her if there was dairy in the scrambled egg batter. Shane didn’t know the word for butter, or eggs, although he did know the word for milk.
He said, “I really thought after three years, I’d be able to say something. But the only thing I could say was ‘help.'” And “help” – like most of the words Shane knows best – Shane learned from watching Dora the Explorer in preschool.
His teacher responded, and I felt bad for her. It’s not her fault that Shane didn’t want to give his efforts to speaking Spanish. And why the schools can’t teach as well as Dora is also a mystery.
I wished his teacher well with future students, but sometimes I think things are just not meant to be.
I know that learning a new language is hard, and that it can be done with great effort, studying and – most importantly – practice. Shane just didn’t want it that much.
And while it is sad, I can understand Shane’s frustration. I took Spanish for two years in high school and another two years in college. And everything I know, I learned from Sesame Street and Dora the Explorer, too.