I just had a sad thought about those AP type students we teach. We teach them all sorts of boring stuff, the stuff that they “need to know” for the AP exam, and then expect them to be able to enjoy the language learning experience.
But how can they enjoy our AP classes when all that we give them to do is memorize the vocabulary that they need to address for one of those ridiculous thematic writing prompts like Climate Change and all that. It’s just so sad.
We turn bright happy young kids who just want to play – which is how we acquire languages as per the Chomsky quote below. It’s just so sad. Our kids don’t really enjoy preparing for the language AP exams because they have other AP classes to memorize for.
No wonder the mental health of our youth in America has been labeled by the Centers for Disease Control as a “national emergency”. We start them out in middle school, because we don’t know how to teach languages at the elementary level (really small kids can’t do worksheets), with all the boring memorization stuff and then by AP level, those privileged kids who only take the AP classes to strengthen their college portfolios, and they may get a 3 but most get a 2 or 1 except for the rare brainy ones who might get a 4, and we brag that so many of them “passed” the exam because the College Board, in order to keep their coffers full, have dumbed down the exam to lower and lower levels each year, and we call that rigorous.
Rigor as defined by the U.S. Dep’t. of State has nothing to do with the AP exams. Colleges have wised up and no longer require them, because they know it’s just a big scam for money, and because there aren’t enough kids of privilege left to take, for example, the AP exam in French and in French Literature.
It’s all bullshit. I say good riddance to the AP exam. Out with the old and in with the new.
…language is acquired by everyone, effortlessly…merely by living in a community under minimal conditions of interaction, exposure and care…
– Noam Chomsky