Foreign Language Instruction in High School - What Is the Solution?

A superbly prepared teacher who is very, very on top of his game could probably do 35 to maybe 40 minutes of instruction in a period. In the course of an academic school year, there are many days that are lost to various other activities. Even if that completely optimal scenario were somehow to be possible we're still at about half of what the Foreign Service Institute needs to teach a highly motivated, professional foreign language like Spanish.