Lament: The move of American Schools to discontinue the teaching of French

I was fortunate to grow up at a time where French was the preferred foreign language being thought in our school systems, at least in the Northeastern part of the USA. Where I grew up in southern Connecticut we were instructed in French from the third grade on and in High School could select from 7 foreign languages: French, Spanish, German, Italian, Greek, Latin and Russian. At least 40% took French, maybe 17% took Spanish and much smaller percentages took the other languages, with Latin being the least popular. In this age of budget constraints many school districts have dropped all languages except Spanish. With the closest foreign speaking country being Canada/ Qué

bec, in the Northeast USA, which is French Speaking, this reflects more political expediency than actual logic? Maybe not so.

With no constraint on illegal immigration in the USA for our neighbors to the south, and no political will to stop them, as they can be reliable voting block for one of our political parties, we are being overwhelmed with people with little need to learn the native language, English. There is also practical aspects to it. The French Au Pairs in the past have been replaced by much cheaper alternatives, the Spanish-speaking illegals, whose wages can be decidedly, "under the table". So we need to be able to communicate with our 'help' now. Very practical indeed. There may also be a racial bias. In the area that I live there are many recent immigrants from the Ukraine, Russia, China and Haiti. They are forced to learn English, just as my French ancestors were forced to do. They get no special language treatment from the government, but if you are Hispanic you get full Spanish-language support. If I were Hispanic I would recent that. I would feel that the government thinks I am not as intelligent as the other non-English speaking immigrants with no hope of learning the language. A left-handed slap to the pride of Hispanics everywhere, you would think. But they do not seem take it as such, which surprises me. For them, I believe, they think of it as an expression of their growing political power. So if the Haitians overwhelm our shores do we bring back French? An interesting question. 

Warren A.