I just found out my kid's kindergarten class is teaching Russian 40 mins per day.

[meadowlander]

71. No, the point is the curriculum doesn't have to justify mastery level in a subject to teach

it at all.

They're not just learning Russian. They're learning grammar (which helps them learn English), geography, culture, art, roots of words which many increase their English vocabulary, etc.

It's sad that you don't see the value in learning a foreign language. I certainly never became fluent in any of the languages I studied but I did a lot better on my SATs than I would have done otherwise because I studied German. I've rarely used German but it improved my English.

I also studied Russian in college and got an interview for the foreign service on the strength of it. It's also applicable to careers in linguistics, speech therapy, archaeology, comparative literature, music or any career like social work in some communities where you might be called on to be a translator.

Also Russian is very close to all the other Slavic languages. Once you speak one it's easy to pick up others. So if he wants to study another related foreign language later he will pick it up faster because that web of connections and associations is already laid down.

I speak four or five languages at an intermediate level and four or five others at a beginner level. Each new one I add I pick up a lot faster because memorising vocabulary is so much easier if you can associate the new word with something you already know.