The Atlanta Journal Constitution – H.M. Cauley
“Two years ago, Shawn Bender found himself leading the right Atlanta public school at the right time. He had just moved to Georgia from Washington D.C., where he had been part of a school with a dual-language immersion program. That was the same year Gov. Nathan Deal announced an initiative to establish several Spanish immersion programs in the state. Bender jumped at the chance and applied, and was rewarded by having Perkerson Elementary named one of six in the state to offer the program for students in kindergarten through fifth grade. “In D.C., I saw the benefits of this program, and I wanted to bring it here for kids and the community,” said Bender. “But it was so new that, at first, the response I got wasn’t all that positive. I talked about it with the teachers and parents and introduced them to research and, after many meetings with experts, they were open to the idea.” Parents from across the city who were interested in having their incoming kindergartners spend half a day learning in Spanish applied to the program, and 34 students, mostly from the surrounding neighborhood, enrolled in the first class. None of them spoke a word of the foreign language.”(more)