California: Why can't EVERYONE just learn Spanish?

[Taverner]

And I mean that! No, I'm not talking about folks in their 50's suddenly being required to learn this beautiful, wonderful language. Reading Spanish language poetry should alone be reason enough to learn it.

But why can't we make it a graduation requirement for secondary schools?

If their first language is English, they need to be at a High School level of Spanish to graduate.

If their first language is other than English, then they need to be at a High School level of English to graduate. The second one is pretty much the case. Those cases of teachers passing students just to get them out is rarer than you might think.

But California (and I would say, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, New York, Illinois, Florida and Texas) has a huge Spanish speaking population. And speaking Spanish opens so many doors - even if its just a little Spanish - I can't see why we don't require it.

I have been forcing myself to keep up my Spanish. I wish I knew it better.

It may seem hard at first, but once you find the way to teach yourself a language, it gets easier every day.

Oh, and go check out the Spanish poetry. I swear, that language was made for poets and songwriters. All those words ending in 'o' and 'a'....