Wicked Local Norwood – Brad Cole
“Thirteen students at St. Catherine of Sienna School are becoming global children. These students, from kindergarten to grade five, are participating in the school’s new Mandarin Chinese program, taught by native speaker and Global Child teacher Nina Stephen. The course aims to teach students the basics of reading, writing and speaking in Mandarin Chinese…Principal Mary Russo said the goal is to eventually hire a Chinese teacher and offer the language as a course at the school, starting at the elementary level. For now, it will operate as an after school program. “We chose Chinese because it is spoken by a third of the world’s population,” Russo said…Given China’s importance on a global scale, parents leapt at the opportunity to sign students up for the course.”(more)