SPANISH

New at The Academy. For most of our history, every Academy student studied French. This year, families choose.

Spanish now runs as a full parallel track, kindergarten through eighth grade, with the same hours, the same expectations, and the same nine-year arc. It is not an elective, an add-on, or an enrichment block.

We added it for a plain reason. California has more Spanish speakers than any other state. A Berkeley child who studies Spanish for nine years graduates with a language they will use on the walk home, at work, and in this state for the rest of their life.

For families who speak Spanish at home, it means something more specific. The home language becomes academic content. A child who speaks Spanish at the dinner table can build real literacy in it, with grammar, literature, and formal writing, instead of sitting in a beginner's French class while the language they already have goes untaught by the school.

Latin still arrives in sixth grade for every student, and it makes both tracks click.