Most students remember Dora the Explorer and her Spanish teaching skills. But what happens when students want to go beyond knowing basic phrases and want to learn how to read, write and speak proficiently in Spanish?

Students take lower level Spanish classes and move up the Spanish class ladder by eventually reaching AP Spanish, but this year the class was taken out of the curriculum.

“I found out at the end of last year when [foreign language teacher] Señora Smith told her classes that there would not be an AP Spanish course. Many of her students literally went to her room and begged her to teach it,” keyboard senior Elizabeth Priegues said. “I thought it was ridiculous that they would take AP Spanish off the curriculum.”

Many students who planned on taking AP Spanish were stunned to find out that the class wouldn’t be offered this year.

“We didn’t have any teacher to teach it [because foreign language teacher Ms. Palau retired]” Assistant Principal George Miller said
Instead of taking AP Spanish, many student opted for Spanish 5, a high-level Spanish class that does not offer a college credit. Since there is only one Spanish 5 class, some were not able to take the course.
“I didn’t take Spanish 5 because it didn’t fit in my schedule and I wanted to open up to be able to take other courses as a senior,” Prigues said.

Without AP Spanish as an option, many students will not be able to take their Spanish skills to a higher level, but some students plan on learning by themselves or learning a new language altogether.

“As a semi-native speaker, I will take a few Spanish literature classes in college. However, I have moved on from the Spanish class and progressed into learning other languages,” Priegues said.

Priegues, who is half Cuban, speaks Spanish at home with her dad, which helps her perfect her Spanish. Others are not as lucky.

“For other students who don’t have the advantage of being Hispanic by blood, I would recommend them to simply read in Spanish while they’re in high school, watch Spanish movies, and then continue to take Spanish courses in college,” Priegues said.