By Yissel Ramirez
Students at a local elementary school recite the pledge in Spanish each morning – a practice showing students at an early age how to incorporate foreign language with patriotism.
“I love it, it has taught him a lot of respect for the pledge,” said Marianne Hexley, mother of a second-grade student who goes to charter school, Freedom Academy. “He has learned the pledge in English for two years and it has become a habit. I don”t think he really had to think about the words until he said it in Spanish.”
Local charter school Freedom Academy teaches all 332 of its students Spanish.
Kindergartners learn to memorize vocabulary while students in first through sixth grade learn Spanish grammar.
“Younger grades are learning Spanish by repeating it,” said Jessica Cooley, Freedom Academy secretary. “The higher grades are learning how to read and change vowel sounds, so they have a purer accent.”
Cooley said students are constantly practicing Spanish outside of the classroom. She said she hears them singing songs like ”Cabeza, Hombres, Rodilla, y Pies”, which is ”Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes” in English, and greeting their peers in Spanish.
“I hear them when I”m sitting at my desk, they say [Spanish words] that they only know. They will say ”adios” to each other,” Cooley said.
Each morning the Cooley leads the pledge in Spanish. She learned the pledge in Spanish when she was in middle school and increased her fluency on a Spanish-speaking mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
One-third of Freedom Academy teachers are fluent in Spanish. About a dozen Hispanic families have children attending Freedom Academy.
Freedom Academy director Marilyn Simons noticed the trend in language and suggested learning the pledge in Spanish.
Simons encourages the study of a foreign language at an early age because it is the best time for someone to learn a language, she said.
“Parents are very supportive of their children learning the pledge this way,” Simons said. “Our winter program will have Christmas songs sung in Spanish by the students.”
However, kindergarten students only learn the basics of writing Spanish and grammar after they are taught to read and write in English.
Memorizing the pledge and 20 minutes of Spanish teaching each day prepares the kindergartner students for advanced Spanish to be taught in higher grades.
Freedom Academy has labels hanging around the school showing the Spanish word for objects such as “acensor” for elevator and “reloj” for clock.
The signs give students a visual representation of what they are learning and how to use the words.
Freedom Academy has been open for four years and is chartered by the Provo School District. There is a maximum capacity of 350 students allowed. There are openings available for second-grade and a waiting list for all others.
