It takes thousands and thousands of hours to be able to handle a language. What does “handle a language” mean? It means to understand it when it is spoken in a natural way by a native speaker, to read it at a very high, almost technical level, to write at a level of clarity with multiple verb tenses, multiple pronoun order, etc. and to be able to speak it with fluidity.
Piece of cake, right? Especially if we have, realistically, 300-400 of those tens of thousands of hours needed available to us as language teachers. We should be able to do that with our high school students, right? Get them to a 3 grade on the AP exam – as long as we have the smartest ones, right?
Never mind that our students are preparing for other AP exams during the time they are taking our language classes.. They are smart and they can do it! We just need to drill the verb forms and all the grammar and all the reading and all the writing and all the speaking until they can find the handle, right?
I mean, there are big rewards, the spoils of choosing the right profession, right? If our kids can handle the language (3 on the AP exam minimum), they are praised by the system. We are praised. We get big incentive money, as in all businesses. Did I say money? Oops, that was wrong.
Education is not a business! Why should we be paid? What was I thinking? Well, maybe it has become that.
But wait, if education has become a business, then where is my money? I’m the teacher! I and my students are the people on the assembly line who actually makes the product. Why does the College Board get all the money for the work my students and I do?