Focus on Family & Culture
Sep 16 2008
Written by Matt Gittleman, Seattle, WA
A Unique School with a Global Mission
Seattle Kids Become World Citizens at an Early Age
My daughter, Taliya, is in the 5th grade this year. It’s her final year as a student at Seattle’s John Stanford International School (JSIS) in the Spanish immersion program.
Dropping her off for that all important first day this year, I lingered a moment to watch the new Kindergarten kids pooled around the school’s festive courtyard. I was wistful for the day when Taliya started with this wonderful program six years earlier.
Now, as then, the children were from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Their play was unencumbered by perceptions of difference and foreign backgrounds. The colors of the children swirled together into a beautiful movement of churning legs and outreached hands in a game of tag. Time stood still in that moment. Anxious parents and excited children mingled with the new teachers just as Taliya and I had done those six years ago.
John Stanford, the former Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, had a dream that children from all different cultural backgrounds would unite together in an environment of learning and language immersion. The school offers incoming students the choice of Japanese or Spanish immersion for their six years at the school.
Taliya spends half of her days learning math, science, and social studies in Spanish. Her teachers are all fluent, and use a combination of spoken language, body movement, and vigorous head shakes to communicate to their students. The kids are required to make every effort to use their second language to ask for instruction, clarification, or even to go to the restroom. The musical cadence of Spanish floats out of Taliya’s classroom into the hallways.
After lunch, Taliya and her classmates switch to their English language portion of the day to learn the basics of reading, writing, vocabulary, and grammar. If Mr. Stanford could only see the actualization of his dream……
Unfortunately for students, parents, and the entire Seattle School district, John Stanford died of leukemia before he could expand his pilot program to more schools.
Karen Kodama, the first principal at JSIS, is a tireless promoter of the benefits of language immersion and building cultural awareness among young people. She had planned to retire after turning the reins over to a new, young principal Kelly Aramaki. However, school officials begged her to stay on as a consultant and active liaison to another elementary school that will offer Spanish and Mandarin Chinese immersion. Karen will need to add a fourth language to her arsenal as she MC’s the school productions for parents, by introducing each teacher and their special presentation in English, Spanish, Japanese, and now Mandarin.
Time Magazine has honored JSIS as one of the top elementary school programs in the country. The reasons for the award are clear. The school draws from its own students and their parents to provide all the cultural richness that makes JSIS so special. The potluck event at the school is a favorite in my family because we get to taste cuisines from dozens of countries. You’ll hear parents recommending the Thai meatballs, the Indian curry, or the Filipino noodles.
Seattle has a highly diverse cultural community of immigrants from all over the world, and it seems like many of their children go to JSIS. I remember commenting to a parent at one of the JSIS cultural celebration events that “it looks like the United Nations in here.” Kids from over forty countries sang, danced, and played instruments for their adoring parents.
At a time when this country needs greater cultural sensitivity and understanding, John Stanford is a beacon of light showing the way for other elementary school programs. Taliya has no problems meeting kids from all kinds of cultural backgrounds. She has been encouraged to be curious, open, and accepting of all kids. If more Americans had the opportunity to experience the richness of diverse cultures early in their lives, perhaps our fear of differences would be eliminated or subdued.
Student Photos: Barry Wong, Seattle Post Intelligencer
My daughter, Taliya, is in the 5th grade this year. It’s her final year as a student at Seattle’s John Stanford International School (JSIS) in the Spanish immersion program.
Dropping her off for that all important first day this year, I lingered a moment to watch the new Kindergarten kids pooled around the school’s festive courtyard. I was wistful for the day when Taliya started with this wonderful program six years earlier.
Now, as then, the children were from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Their play was unencumbered by perceptions of difference and foreign backgrounds. The colors of the children swirled together into a beautiful movement of churning legs and outreached hands in a game of tag. Time stood still in that moment. Anxious parents and excited children mingled with the new teachers just as Taliya and I had done those six years ago.
John Stanford, the former Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools, had a dream that children from all different cultural backgrounds would unite together in an environment of learning and language immersion. The school offers incoming students the choice of Japanese or Spanish immersion for their six years at the school.
Taliya spends half of her days learning math, science, and social studies in Spanish. Her teachers are all fluent, and use a combination of spoken language, body movement, and vigorous head shakes to communicate to their students. The kids are required to make every effort to use their second language to ask for instruction, clarification, or even to go to the restroom. The musical cadence of Spanish floats out of Taliya’s classroom into the hallways.
After lunch, Taliya and her classmates switch to their English language portion of the day to learn the basics of reading, writing, vocabulary, and grammar. If Mr. Stanford could only see the actualization of his dream……
Unfortunately for students, parents, and the entire Seattle School district, John Stanford died of leukemia before he could expand his pilot program to more schools.
Karen Kodama, the first principal at JSIS, is a tireless promoter of the benefits of language immersion and building cultural awareness among young people. She had planned to retire after turning the reins over to a new, young principal Kelly Aramaki. However, school officials begged her to stay on as a consultant and active liaison to another elementary school that will offer Spanish and Mandarin Chinese immersion. Karen will need to add a fourth language to her arsenal as she MC’s the school productions for parents, by introducing each teacher and their special presentation in English, Spanish, Japanese, and now Mandarin.
Time Magazine has honored JSIS as one of the top elementary school programs in the country. The reasons for the award are clear. The school draws from its own students and their parents to provide all the cultural richness that makes JSIS so special. The potluck event at the school is a favorite in my family because we get to taste cuisines from dozens of countries. You’ll hear parents recommending the Thai meatballs, the Indian curry, or the Filipino noodles.
Seattle has a highly diverse cultural community of immigrants from all over the world, and it seems like many of their children go to JSIS. I remember commenting to a parent at one of the JSIS cultural celebration events that “it looks like the United Nations in here.” Kids from over forty countries sang, danced, and played instruments for their adoring parents.
At a time when this country needs greater cultural sensitivity and understanding, John Stanford is a beacon of light showing the way for other elementary school programs. Taliya has no problems meeting kids from all kinds of cultural backgrounds. She has been encouraged to be curious, open, and accepting of all kids. If more Americans had the opportunity to experience the richness of diverse cultures early in their lives, perhaps our fear of differences would be eliminated or subdued.
Student Photos: Barry Wong, Seattle Post Intelligencer
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2 Comments
Oct 3 2008
Written by Bella, Providence, RI
Sounds like a great school. Your daughter’s fortunate to study there!
Oct 8 2008
Written by RosieIssel, Foster City, CA
Both my children attended a Dual Immersion program here in the Bay Area. The make-up and structure of the program is a little different. 50% of the kids entering kindergarten are English speakers and 50% are Spanish Speakers. In Kindergarten, the ratio of time learning in Spanish to the time learning in English is 90% to 10% meaning that 90% of the day is spent hearing and learning in Spanish.
The amounts increase/decrease each year until 5th grade when it’s an even 50/50 split. The program continues in Middle School in a slightly different format but we did not choose that option because of the location of the program in relation to our house.
Some of the kids who started in the program are now in College and a lot of them report back that their elementary education and exposure to different cultures have served them well. It is interesting to see that most of these college kids share an openess to meet other cultures and to travel the world and they are very outgoing in almost any setting.