Bilingual program unites city kids

By Matthew McLaughlin

East Somerville Community School students, parents and faculty came together June 14 to celebrate the first 8th grade graduation of the Unidos program.

Unidos is a bilingual program that brought English and Spanish speaking homes together. The goal is to produce bilingual and biliterate students who are respectful of their own cultures and the cultures of others, according to their website. Students are taught half in their native language and the other half in a foreign language.

The Unidos program began nine years ago with one kindergarten class. The class was divided between children that spoke English as a primary language and students whose primary language was Spanish. Each year the program added a grade until there were classes all the way up to eighth grade. The first graduating class is representative of the success of the project, said Christine Henebury, a parent of one of 14 graduating students.

“Watching the camaraderie and genuine fondness the eighth grade Unidos students have for each other is wonderful,” she said. “As kindergarteners, these children and their parents took a chance on a brand new, untried experiment geared toward promoting bilingualism in Somerville.”

Although the students graduated from the program, Henebury said parents also learned.

“What happened was a lesson in biculturalism for us all,” she said. “Parents who might have never met grew to know each other through their children. The Unidos kids came from all corners of Somerville and most would never have met if they had opted for their neighborhood schools. They did meet, learned together and grew together sharing knowledge of not just their native languages, English and Spanish, but also their cultures. This merging of east and west, north, central and south is what Somerville is all about. The fact that these children now have the added gift of bilingualism turned out to be the icing on the cake; the true meaning of Unidos came through in the bonds that these diverse students are proving possible to us all.”

Comments

[america]

This is America they should be speaking english when they come into our country.Their country don't bend over backwards for us. what has this country come to?

[Sweet]

They do speak English. Did you not read the article? Half the classes are taught in English and half are in Spanish.

I think this program sounds awesome. Congrats to the ECCS 8th graders on their graduation, and good luck in high school!

[Ron Newman]

They may speak better English than you have written.

[$$$]

This is an expensive program, and I'm not sure if the benefits outweigh the costs. Not only do they pay 2 teachers for every classroom, they TRANSPORT every student (spanish-speakers AND english-speakers) to school every day. How many students attend this program?
I also don't see the benefit in creating 'bilingual and biliterate' students, and 'biculturalism'. Look at every society from Ancient Rome to Modern Canada, a "bi-society" has never, and will never, work.

[Warder]

This is the United States and we do not have a national language. I bet if you look at their country they have one.

It seems people wanted the program. and if people are willing to press for it and get it funding the more power to them.

The downside is if their children are not able to develop a large enough English skill set fast enough and are then impeded in their educational development.

[Warder]

Look at Europe were it is common to speak at least 2 languages. There it is enforced that students become fluent in multiple languages. It has prepared them to exist in a more diverse economy... like the one exist in.

I am not sure of the details of the program, but if it gives kids a leg up for success we should have all students in similar programs, maybe for languages like Chinese, Russian, German, French and Portuguese as well as Spanish.

[Warder]

I apologize for not saying it in prior comments but congratulations for all the students and I wish them the best in their next educational steps!

[American]

This program is great. If you don't know what bilingual classes are you should not comment. It is a program that helps none English speaking youth learn to do so in a much easier pace for them. If they were thrown into regular classes with English speaking students they would not be able to learn. This program helped students such as Gosder Cherilus become the man he is today and now he's a millionaire lol. Great job guys. Much success.

[yuri Miguel]

Hi my name is Yuri Miguel, and I was part of the first Unidos class to graduate, and I am very proud to say I was part of this wonderful program. I recommend this program to all of the parents and hopefully they have Unidos as a option of a school for their children. By being part of this program I was able to grow up as a human being. Being in the program made me realize how we all are united and should love and respect each other no matter from what country other people are. This program gave me many things and I learned many things from it. I just wanted to say thank you in behalf of the Unidos 8th grade class and to everyone’s comments and good wishes. Thank you
Gracias

[CityKid]

Its great to see citykids come together.