The Report of the National Commission on the Reform of Secondary Education: Its Implications for Foreign Language Education

W HAT IS WRONG with American secondary education? What has caused its many problems? What are some feasible solutions? What role will foreign language instruction play in the high school of the future? All these questions save the last one are answered explicitly by The Reform of Secondary Education, a report of the National Commission on the Reform of Secondary Education. As regards foreign language study, if its status is not precisely delineated at least there are clear indications as to the direction the profession should be looking in order to be a significant element in America's changing patterns of education. This study, subtitled: "Report to the Public and Profession," was produced under the auspices of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation and published by McGraw Hill in 1973. It is the most recent in a history of key reports which have appeared at times of educational crisis and controversy. The current problems are only too apparent. Schools have seen a proliferation of . . .student dissent, unrest, and racial discord. These influences, coupled with countless court decisions, have radically changed the high schools' student bodies, and the attitudes of students on racial, cultural and socio-economic matters. Neither the schools' altered clientele nor restricted authority currently matches the traditional mode of operation (p. xiii).