Starting in the 2024-2025 school year, French is no longer offered as a class at GHS. GHS still offers Spanish, German, and American Sign Language classes, but French was taken off that list.
“It’s been around as long as I’ve been here which is 25 years…Probably was here when the school started,” counselor Christopher Muench said.
The current juniors and seniors can enroll in an online French course, but the current sophomores and freshmen do not have that opportunity. Many freshmen have taken French all three years of middle school and are now enrolled in Spanish.
“With the French program, simply it was a mix of two things: not being able to secure a quality, consistent teacher at GHS and GMS and the dwindling number of students electing French as their language choice,” principal Steve Lodes said.
If French classes were still offered at GHS, former students would have been able to take much higher-level French classes later in high school.
“I feel upset because even after three years of having fun and being with the best teacher, I had to take a whole different language,” freshman Charlotte Campeau said. “I think some freshmen could take the online course because our teacher had helped us master things in French and maybe we were ready for the next level.”
Many students, parents, and teachers, are upset about the program’s removal. The news was spread during the last week of last year’s school year after students had already chosen their classes for the following year.
“I definitely would have taken French all through high school, but after taking it for four years including middle school I didn’t want to go through taking a whole new language again,” sophomore Julie Lehman said. “I definitely am glad I took French, and I don’t think it was a waste, but maybe would have chosen a different language if I knew this would’ve happened.”
Most of the current juniors and seniors who are eligible for the online program have chosen not to take it. The new online program is independently based, and for people who do not have the motivation or interest to always be learning French without a teacher, it can cause some challenges.
“Everything is self-paced which I know can be a struggle for some people, but as of now, I’m on pace with the goals I set,” junior Shayla Pavelchik said. “This semester I’m taking French in Ms. Havas’s room with two other people doing the UW Madison course. There are five other French 3’s in the room as well doing a different program.”
Many colleges such as UW Madison, require at least three years of the same language classes, so some students now may not meet the requirements to get into top colleges.
