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The Georgia Project
A model for immigrant education


By GIL KLEIN
Media General News Service
Tuesday, November 29, 2005

The Georgia Project

Moises Rodriguez, 17, who arrived in Whitfield County, Ga. three years ago from Mexico, is helped by his teacher, Blanca Balderas. (Photo by Ted Williams, WDEF Television)

DALTON, Ga. - For 17-year-old Moises Rodriguez, having a teacher from Mexico made all the difference.

Rodriguez arrived at Southeast Whitfield High three years ago when his parents came to Whitfield County area from Mexico to find work. He spoke no English.

"I didn't understand what they were telling me," he said. "I was afraid because I didn't know what to answer."

Blanca Balderas, a bilingual teacher who came to South Whitfield High from Mexico three years ago as part of "The Georgia Project," took Rodriquez under her wing.

"Mrs. Balderas took care of me and helped me with my teachers," Rodriquez said. "After six months, I started to speak English. Now I want to go to college."

The Georgia Project began eight years ago when immigrants mostly from Mexico began to arrive by the thousands to a part of Georgia that never had experienced an immigration wave.
Erwin Mitchell, a lifelong Dalton resident, former congressman, and local attorney, was shocked when he visited an elementary school classroom in 1996 and found Hispanic children who couldn't speak English, a frustrated teacher who couldn't speak Spanish, and Anglo students who weren't learning anything.

"I couldn't believe I was in Dalton," Mitchell said. "It was a foreign land."

Finding bilingual teachers in northwest Georgia was next to impossible, he said. Something more radical had to be done.

Working with the carpet mill owners, who were recruiting workers from Mexico, the city council, and the public school system, Mitchell created an alliance with the Universidad de Monterrey in northern Mexico.
Qualified bilingual Mexican teachers came to Georgia on three-year visas, while teachers from Dalton and surrounding Whitfield County traveled to Monterrey during the summers to study Spanish and Mexican culture.

The city of Dalton, (pop. 31,000) where 65 percent of the students are now native Spanish speakers, has replaced The Georgia Project with an "International Inclusion Center" where new immigrant arrivals can get intense language training before going into the school system.

But the Georgia Project is expanding into other counties where immigrants are settling. Now funded primarily with federal grants, the project has 16 Mexican teachers working in four northwest Georgia counties this school year and for the first time it has expanded into southwest Georgia with two teachers.

Five Mexican teachers decided to stay and have become permanent residents and teachers.

"Our students have excelled and the transition period (for immigrants) seems to be cut quite a bit with these Georgia Project teachers," said Dusty Brown, a Whitfield County assistant superintendent.

The Georgia Project is "a model for communities experiencing a rapid influx of immigrants," said Deborah Short of the Center for Applied Linguistics, a private, nonprofit center for language education.

The Mexican teachers work with the students who know the least amount of English.

"Imagine you're a kid in third grade. You don't know how to read or write in English," said Alma Pedraza, who arrived in Whitfield County this year from Mexico to teach at Eastside Elementary School. "The teacher is up there speaking in English, and you're not getting anything.

"They're smart and they want to learn," she said. "They know in the 45 minutes they have with me, they will learn something."

Mexican teachers help immigrant students deal with the stress of being in a new country. They're role models for students and can speak directly with their parents. And they interpret Mexican culture for the Anglo teachers and administrators.

"It's important for me to help my students understand about the United States and how they can succeed here," said Sylvia Trevino Moore, who came to Wakefield County from the Monterrey seven years ago and decided to stay at Dawnville Elementary School and get married. "It also is important for me to be able to explain to Anglos what it is like to leave everything to come to a new country."

Jeff Hensley, who teaches algebra at Southeast Whitfield High School, is one of 116 Anglo teachers who studied at Monterrey under The Georgia Project.

"It provided a bond with my students," he said. "They see me trying to learn Spanish, and they see me making mistakes. So they know we can all make mistakes and still learn."

At Southeast Whitfield High, Blanca Balderas cried as she heard her protégé describe how she had helped him get started.

"When I could see he could handle it, I left him alone," she said. "They say they are not your children, but they are."