World languages such as Spanish, French, and German have all been taught at Ridgeline High School since the school’s beginning. Taking these classes have been really popular for students because they want to learn a new language and be taught at a beginner level all the way to advanced level. Some students also take these classes because some colleges require students to take at least two years of a language. Students can take up to 4 years of each level of the language class. Over the past few years, students have been taking these classes less and less.

Mr. Hamilton, one of the Spanish teachers at Ridgeline said that the world language enrollments have decreased from the first year he taught enrollments are about 40% less. He said that students were not taking Spanish because “they think it is a hard class and that you have to study a lot. They also took it off the Regents Scholarship.” He said that to make kids want to take world languages more he would tell them the importance of learning a second language. He said every job that he has gotten he has used the Spanish language.

Kyran Leishman and Braxton Jensen, two sophomores at Ridgeline, have taken Spanish class for two years. Braxton said that the reason he takes a world language is for when he is older. He can make more money and have more job opportunities because he will know Spanish. When asked why students don’t want to take a world language class, Kyran said, “It is difficult and people don’t want to put in the effort to learn a new language.” He also said that other students would want to take world language classes, “if it was a lot easier to learn and took less time to learn.”