Cable program picks up where schools leave off
''Cmo ests?" ''How are you?" Kiera Campbell, a former Arlington Spanish teacher, asked four Arlington elementary school students who were seated with her on the set of the local cable public access studio.
''Bien," said Ysabela Campbell-Breen, 6, Campbell's daughter, and a Bishop School first-grader. ''But I'm also hot!"
Despite the heat from the television lights, the young students didn't wilt during the recording of one of the first installments of ''Hola Arlington!" a new Spanish language instruction program premiering on
In a segment filled with bilingual banter about ''La Familia," Campbell taught the Spanish words for relatives, including grandmother, ''la abuela," and grandfather, ''el abuelo." The children also sang songs, listened to a story, and drew pictures.
Billed as a way to ''learn Spanish with your friends," the cable TV project aims to fill a void in Arlington's seven elementary schools. After a five-year run and serving more than 2,200 students, the Spanish language instruction program was cut by the cash-strapped school district this school year.
''Hola, Arlington!" is the brainchild of the Arlington Spanish Network, a group of some 100 parents and community volunteers formed two years ago to support Spanish in the elementary grades. It's the centerpiece of a broader effort to sustain the momentum generated by the defunct school program by exposing young students to a foreign language and new cultures.
The cable television program will air on Comcast Channel 8. Campbell and Siobhan Foley, another former Arlington Spanish teacher, who are being paid through the Arlington Education Enrichment Fund, together with volunteer Agustina Gomez Victorica, a student teacher, will lead the small classes using the original curriculum and lesson plans.
Charlotte Pierce, the coordinator of the Spanish network, said the half-hour show will start airing next week. It will run seven days a week at 7 a.m. and on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 3 p.m. The Spanish network has produced seven classroom segments so far and will add animation and on-location elements. It plans to air a different program every week.
In addition to showing the program on cable television and in public screenings, the Spanish network also plans to make videocassettes and DVDs available in school and town libraries.
''Hola, Arlington!" will feature cameo appearances by police officers, firefighters, and selectmen and segments at area landmarks and supermarkets. In addition to the TV project, the group plans to reprise its ''Fiesta" of arts, crafts, music, and food that attracted 1,500 people and raised over $6,000 last spring to help fund the elementary school Spanish program until the end of the last school year. The group also plans to explore ties with parents in Chelsea's Latino community to confront a mutual problem, lack of school funding, said Spanish network member Juan Carlos Ferrufino.
Pierce said members of the Spanish network learned through their online discussion group that some parents had moved to Arlington, in part, because the school system offered Spanish classes in elementary schools.
''Parents have viewed it as a very, very valuable leg up on their kids' education, " said Pierce.
When the program was cut, parents asked, ''What can we do to provide this for our kids?" Pierce said.
In response, the Spanish network decided to produce the cable access show so it could reach as many families as possible without requiring additional time or fee commitments.
''We would like to make it kind of easy," said Pierce.
Parents had no problem motivating children to participate.
''I like talking to people [who] I don't know through television," said Tano Mejia, 8, a Dallin School second-grader.
''I love Spanish and I love kids," said Madeline Brambilla, 15, an Arlington High sophomore and Spanish honors student working on the production crew to fulfill her community service requirement at the high school. ''It's really important to have them exposed to a different language and especially a really commonly used language like Spanish."
Campbell said elementary school students have great enthusiasm for learning a new language and researchers have shown that a child's brain is most receptive to language learning from infancy through the preteen years. Also, according to the Center for Applied Linguistics, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that promotes research and teacher education in linguistics, foreign language study boosts academic performance and often improves standardized test scores.
Judi Bohn, director of Arlington Partners in Education, a community liaison office of the Arlington public schools, and a Spanish network member, said it was parents who approached school officials about adding Spanish to the elementary school curriculum. The town funded the Spanish program, starting in 1999. Last year, an infusion of funds saved the program at the eleventh hour, but the three-year matching federal grant school officials relied on ended in August. With current budget woes, school officials had no means to finance a program that cost about $275, 000 last year.
''The lack of money is the root of all evil," said School Committee chairman Paul Schlichtman. ''We are just struggling to bring ourselves back to where we were before the bottom fell out" after recent state aid cutbacks, he said.
Schlichtman said parents have shown support for teaching Spanish in the elementary grades, but the school system has more critical priorities, including restoring high school electives and reducing class sizes. He said the Spanish network has understood the budget dilemma facing school officials and has ''worked toward collaboration, instead of packing the room and creating a mass movement to restore Spanish or else."
