Does an outside program help or hurt schools?

         Both, I think, and I will raise another question to this issue: Does the popularity of an outside program affect what schools will teach and consider valuable?  I say yes! In fact, if an outside program is offered in a particular school district and is considered necessary and valuable to a community, I think this will drive community efforts to offer such programs as a part of the curriculum. Here is the scenario. In my school district, there exists an arts center which offers classes to students that may be considered to be “enrichment.” Most of the classes offered at this arts center could also be characterized as arts oriented offerings. Offerings such as robotics, music lessons and second language learning lessons. Right, second language learning, just lumped in there with other types of art classes!  Please don’t get me wrong, I’m in no way maligning arts classes, or considering them to have lower value than traditional academic subjects, but let’s face it, art classes have always carried a certain stigma that perhaps they are not as rigorous as other academic classes, and that they are the fun classes. Unfortunately, this is a stigma that in some communities will take considerable effort to remove on the part of the parent's generation. Therefore, this may be detrimental in selling a language program as the rigorous subject that it is.
        In my own school Spanish is clumped in with Unified Arts classes, (or wherever it will fit for scheduling purposes!) So, in terms of community offerings hurting schools, perhaps if they are packaged as fun and games, this packaging may affect how the subject is considered. However, on the other hand, the fact that a particular subject is recognized, does lend a certain importance to the subject.
       It is interesting the way that things worked out in my school district with Spanish offered at the arts center. The Spanish offering at the arts center was popular, competitive parents wanted their children to learn Spanish early on. This community sentiment prevailed and the school district went on to begin a Spanish program a the K level. I taught at the arts center for their summer Spanish programs. After Spanish became part of the district’s curriculum beginning a the K level, the interest in Spanish at the arts center declined and the program is no longer offered. I’m out of a summer job, it was great PR for me! So, in that sense it was a positive thing for teacher/ community relations. Also, the program did die out because of economic strains on parents. Parents decided that they would save their money since Spanish was now offered at the school.
      There is a little good, and a little bad in offering outside World Language programs. In a perfect world,  both the outside and the district offering should complement one another, not detract from one another and should ultimately support one another... in a perfect world.