In a message dated 2/24/2006 11:14:11 P.M. Central Standard Time, JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx writes: Somehow I'm starting to think that getting my kids into language classes in Chinese and Indian might be more pragmatic than Arabic... Hi, My son's Exploring Languages and Cultures just got done with a unit on Chinese. The high school, next fall, will offer grades 10-12 Chinese classes. (my son was hoping that it would start next year for him, but he has a couple more years to go--) My understanding is that many schools are going to do that in the next couple of years. Also--speaking of the changing educational climate ...here's a couple of other thoughts... School districts encourage, more and more, people to home school. Many allow, now, kids to take extracurricular classes as well as certain classes [such as math or science] but not the others ... I heard (but have not checked) that either Minnesota or Michigan is going to require next year for all graduating high school seniors to have taken at least one online class ... Eventually, we may not have schools, do you think? Which may eliminate a lot of the need for teachers, etc (esp if the online classes are taught by Chinese and/or Indian teachers)--and all kids will be taking classes online from their homes... Not sure who will be home to watch them, mind you--but it could happen at least on the high school level. Best, Marlena in Missouri