The beginning of the school year is typically the time for clubs to choose their plan of action in the coming year. However, for the French club, this year has been challenging, as many clubs are dissolving due to lack of sponsorship and student interest.
“I just think it’s kind of a society that doesn’t value languages as much, or kids have other ways to get credit for speech or language classes, and they just don’t feel the need to take a language,” French teacher Suzanne Johnson said. “It’s just not as popular, or maybe kids just aren’t as curious about other cultures as they used to be.”
The French club, led last year by senior Maisoon Abusbeih, met after school once or twice a month to explore French culture and society outside of class last year. Meetings were sponsored by French teacher Dana Moore, who held the meetings in her room. However, with Dana Moore’s transfer to Parkway Central, this left the French club without a sponsor.
“We did a lot of French-related activities. We would talk about French holidays, try French food, stuff like that,” Abusbeih, former president of the French club, said.
Johnson states that she is willing to sponsor the club if someone is willing to be president. Currently, only Abusbeih has shown interest but doesn’t know if she wants to continue doing it her senior year.
“Last year, I had help starting it up. I just don’t know if I would be able to handle the workload all by myself,” Abusbeih said.
Another reason for the lack of participation in clubs is a drop in enrollment. The number of students at North has dropped from 1231 in 2016-2017 to 1,085 students in 2023-2024.
“We know school population is down overall. While we lost Latin, we gained ASL, so there’s another option for students to take,” French teacher Suzanne Johnson said. “Just in general we’ve seen a kind of a slow, but steady decline in taking languages all across Parkway North.”
For Johnson, the only French teacher in the building, this population decline has added more stress since she now teaches several different sections of French leaving less time to devote to clubs as she has more lessons to prepare. Johnson is also expecting a baby making finding time to sponsor a club difficult.
“There would be like three months where the club couldn’t meet, so I guess it’s just up to whoever wants to run the club, if they wanted to find someone to watch or sponsor while I’m gone for those twelve weeks,” Johnson said.
With no knowledge of anyone who might be willing to take over as president, the fate of the French Club has yet to be decided.
