Given some students who lacked a natural ability to learn languages, there is a belief that learning a foreign language should not be incorporated into a school’s curriculum as a mandatory subject. While this perspective is valid to some extent, I firmly agree for two chief reasons.
It is wise acknowledging the benefits of not forcing children to learn a second language. School is the institution where children should be given the knowledge alongside the greater freedom. Even though some children naturally gifted by the ability to learn languages and to cope with the accent or spelling difficulties they tend to face while immersing in the process of learning a language ,it is unwise to fall through the cracks that the rest of children might not have such an ability for languages. For instance, kids gifted by an ability to come up with any foreign languages -potentially culminate their language learning with a greater fluency and cognitive flexibility, while incapable children will never achieve this proficiency even with hard working. Therefore, forcing every student down to the same path would consequently act as a waste of time and resources, showing the potential emotional impacts like stress, burnout and anxiety that one-size-fits-all approach might bring.
On the other hand, I still maintain that learning a language should be a personal choice not obligatory. Firstly, children are incredibly diverse in their passions and interests,so it is not a surprise if their interests are not match with that of peers. In such cases, the best approach is giving the freedom to choose their own interest which correlates with their natural ability. For example, children who sincerely gravitate toward learning different languages can simply take part in extra classes, while those interested in art, music or sports should start pursuing these fields. Secondly, there is a higher likelihood of academic burnout. As eating a meal you do not like does not offer pleasure, learning the language you find hard to learn, might leave children with lack incentive to study, becoming disillusioned as a result.
To conclude, while through learning languages children become more articulate and culturally aware, making it mandatory by disregarding other children’s preferences, is highly likely to make them feel stifled by the curriculum which later result in increasing rate of uneducated individuals.