Tenth Year for Madison Middle School!
Italian Program at Spring Harbor Middle School, Madison, WI
By Giovanna Miceli Jeffries
It is not easy to believe that the Italian program at Spring Harbor Middle School in Madison began its tenth year this September 2008! Time flies even for this pioneer Italian program in Wisconsin’s schools. It is an occasion to remember and also to celebrate because this program became a sort of promising omen leading the way to the expansion of other Italian programs throughout Wisconsin. Thanks to the work and efforts of WisItalia, there are, to this day, in Wisconsin 7 high schools, 2 middle schools, 1 immersion elementary school with Italian language programs integrated in their curricula. To these, one also needs to add various elementary after-school programs and evening classes for adults in Appleton, Kenosha, Green Bay, Madison and Milwaukee.
It all started in April 1998, two years before the establishment of WisItalia, with the visit in Madison of an official delegation from the Italian consulate in Chicago. This included, in addition to the Consul General, the director of the Italian Trade Commission, the director of the Italian Tourist Office and other officials. They spent two days in Madison while the Italian Workmen’s Club organized official receptions and programs at the club house. One of the aims of this visit was to encourage local schools to offer Italian in their curricula with some supports from the Italian government. We invited several local middle and high schools administrators to meet with the consul and the other officials, and one of the schools, Spring Harbor Middle School, welcomed the invitation and committed to set up the first Italian classes for the upcoming school year. The forces behind this push were the former principal Gary Sisler, the present school’s principal, Gail Anderson who was at that time the school’s learning coordinator, and the former Educational officer of the Italian Consulate in Chicago, Dr. Anna Fiore.The summer prior to the beginning of the program, I decided to obtain my teaching certification in order to secure the establishment of the program. I ordered new Italian books and wrote curricula and syllabi for three levels: 6th, 7th and 8th grades. By the time school started, there were already 20 students enrolled in Italian in both 7th and 8th grades—-keep in mind that this is a small, type of magnet school, with only 225 students--while about 80 6th grade students took an exploratory Italian language and culture program. The Italian government allocated $15,000 for the first year, enough to pay for the teacher’s salary and books.
That fall of 1998, there was good press coverage and exposure of the Italian program: Phil Brinkman wrote a nice article in the Wisconsin State Journal and Channel 15 broadcasted interviews with students and the teacher. Students engaged in language and cultural activities feel special and selective in their educational exploration. It was a very good and promising first school year for the Italian program, with the only dark cloud the fact that graduating 8th graders could not continue the study of Italian in the feeding high school, Memorial.
During that first school year many efforts were made through letters and parents’ signature petitions to Memorial to start an Italian program to allow Spring Harbor students to continue their study of Italian, but with no avail to this present day. As a way to partly remedy this problem, every 8th grade student of Italian, upon graduation obtains a scholarship to attend Italian classes at the Italian Workmen’s Club for all 4 years of high school.
The Italian program at Spring Harbor has survived and thrived for the last ten years, thanks to the enthusiasm of students, the support of the school’s principals, teachers and learning coordinators, and of parents. Those first students of Italian are now college graduates or college students and some have further continued their study of Italian. Students have been exposed to many opportunities to sharpen their language skills, deepen their understanding of Italy and Italian culture through pen paling with Italian middle school students from Mantova, attending Operas, taking cultural field trips, and performing at public events. Fortunately, the good seeds have spread to another middle school in Madison. Thanks to the interest and enthusiasm of its principal Nancy Evans, Wright Middle School began its own Italian program for 6th graders in the fall of 2005. Both middle school's Italian programs are still funded by the Italian government and the new educational officer in Chicago, Dr. Eleonora Cammareri is highly supportive of them.Many thanks go, in addition to the principals of the schools, to the dedicated teachers of Italian who have succeeded me in teaching at Spring Harbor: Monica Messina, Barbara Bird, Lindsey Monachello and Andrew Muller (who is the current teacher at both Spring Harbor and Wright). We look forward to other future decades of successful and expanded Italian programs in these schools and in other schools in Wisconsin!
Updated March 6, 2010
