I took 6 years of Spanish between high school and college. I grew up with a Puerto Rican father. I can’t even have a conversation with half of my family without speaking Spanish. A three year old native speaker could probably run circles around my Spanish. The problem is, we never really used Spanish at home (long-ish story) or in the classroom. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone that learned a language just from taking it in school. Maybe — hopefully, your schools are better (hey, at least they asked for your input!), but I don’t have a lot of faith in how they teach it.

I’d go for Mandarin or Hindi with the school, and if you really want your son to learn Spanish, find some way to immerse yourselves in it. Speak it in the house. Intentionally go to restaurants and other businesses where you can practice. I’m with Benny here — I think immersion is the only way to go. That can be inconvenient for most of the languages on that list, but since you’re in Texas, you can be as immersed as you want to be.

That’s the rub though. I know all this, and still haven’t done it. My wife and I agreed before having kids that they would grow up speaking Spanish. They’re 9 and 12, and we never did. We bought Rosetta Stone. Duolingo is installed on most of the smart-devices in the house. We all know a little Spanish and occasionally switch languages and chat a bit, but we’ve never really made it a priority.

I guess I’m just saying, if Spanish is the one you really want your kids to learn, it might be a good thing that the school doesn’t offer it. It will give you the chance to choose a better way.

I was going to write part of this comment in Spanish, but couldn’t bring myself to. That’s how little confidence I have in what little I know…