The Place of Spanish in General Education

Abstract

If Spanish is to have a place in general education, we Spanish teachers must make that place secure by adapting our teaching to the program of general education.* To do this, we must learn more about general education. Most of us have spent our professional life, aside from teaching itself, in the solitary enjoyment of an ivory-tower existence doing research or in delightful sojourns among Spanishspeaking people. In our enthusiasm for Spanish, according to some who criticize us, we have developed into monsters who teach subject matter rather than students. We are said to have lost the common touch, if, indeed, we ever possessed it. It is doubtless true that many of us have been so engrossed in our subject that we have not kept pace with what is being discovered about our students and how they learn. We have not been keenly enough aware of what our fellow educators expect of us, nor do we know enough of the emphasis they are placing on general education rather than on special education.