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School district offers Spanish immersion up to 7th grade

05:41 PM CDT on Saturday, September 6, 2008

By JEFF BRADY / WFAA-TV



Jeff Brady reports
September 5, 2008
Kids in school today will have to compete for jobs in a global economy unlike their parents ever faced.

To better prepare them, the HEB school district has launched a unique 'schools of choice' curriculum, including a somewhat controversial program of Spanish language immersion.

All Spanish; all the time.

Critics complain that Spanish comprehension's not part of any standardized test.

Still, the program's results speak for themselves - en espanol.

Children are learning a language the fun way, before aptitudes and attitudes make it hard.

A class of first-grade English-speaking kids - taught completely in Spanish.

All day, for almost every subject.

"I see a lot of growth, and I see a lot of desire to learn and desire not only to learn, but also to love other cultures," said first grade teacher Ana Rich.

It's a unique and voluntary Spanish-language immersion program at Bedford Heights Elementary for children whose parents want them to become bilingual.

The goal here is not necessarily fluency by the sixth grade, but confidence in a second language, to prepare these kids for a global marketplace as adults, and a global job market.

"Candidly, every child in Texas ought to be required to take Spanish," said superintendent, Gene Buinger.

Buinger pushed the program forward eight years ago when his board asked him to consider a more in-depth language curriculum.

"Forty two percent of our kids are low-income in this district. This is not a gilded ghetto by a long shot."

He says most American school districts graduate students who are woefully ill-prepared for the world they will face and foreign language skills are a prime example.

"After having been to China twice, I think we have maybe five years to turn things around and get serious," he said.

He is serious.

Kids in his district can take Spanish immersion through the sixth grade, as well as Mandarin and Hindi languages, plus, the Suzuki strings program, which is an intense music curriculum starting in the first grade unique in public schools.

"The kids are amazing. They can do so much," said music teacher Susan Pugh.

Back at Bedford Heights, fourth graders do more advanced work in Spanish.

They are free to drop out at any time but most don't.

"It gets a little harder, but I know more Spanish each year," said immersion student, Macy Scruggs.

The Spanish teaching tapers down as the students grow up.

By the seventh grade, these kids will have only one core class taught in Spanish, the rest in English.

Some research shows that language study makes students better over-all learners and so far, faculty says the TAKS tests seem to confirm it.

"Those children have done just as well or better than the students that are in the non-immersion classrooms," said Brad Menwasser.

Joy Keohane is a school nurse who has three kids in the Spanish immersion program, and she has no doubts about the benefits.

"It forces your brain to connect different neurons and they actually do better on standardized tests when they have been immersed in another language, she said.

In fact, her kids sometimes use their "palabras" to bypass mom and dad.

"They've done that in the car with friends, sometimes they don't want us to know what they're saying," Keohane said.

Bi-lingual immersion teachers must be native Spanish speakers and get paid $3,000 extra to bring their language and culture to class.

"So it's an awareness at this elementary level, and awareness that we are a world village, a world community," said Juan Figueroa, a fifth grade teacher.

Preparing for a world community, by studying its languages and learning to speak them from day one of class.

"I believe it gives them a substantial edge," Buinger said.

E-mail jbrady@wfaa.com.


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