Middle Tennessee schools bring Spanish to the stage

The Tennessean reports that Hillsboro School, Hunters Bend Elementary, and Franklin High have been producing bilingual English/Spanish school plays.



"At Hillsboro School, students performed a dramatic piece in English and Spanish about the bombing of Guernica, Spain, and Picasso's famous painting. And at Hunters Bend Elementary, students will perform a bilingual play with the help of Franklin High students in the Sociedad Honoraria Hispanica."



"Students from the Spanish Honor Society, or Sociedad Honoraria Hispanica, at Franklin High have been volunteering throughout the school year to help reinforce what third-, fourth- and fifth-graders are learning in the classroom."



"Sophomore Sarah Aitken got the idea to expand the annual cultural event with a play incorporating folk stories, songs and dance. The play is 6 p.m. May 10 at Hunters Bend Elementary."



"'It was cool - you get to really act out what you're saying instead of the Spanish teacher telling you what a word is and you just repeating it back,'' said Hillsboro fifth-grader Zach Deal, who played Picasso in The Day Picasso Wept presented last month."



"[Zach's mother Lavana] Deal has seen the number of Hispanic people slowly grow in Leiper's Fork during the 17 years she's lived there. She was excited to see Zach in a school play that blended conversational Spanish in a way that the audience could contextually follow."



"'There is so much attitude still in America - that if you don't speak the language, leave - but if you care about people, then learning their language and helping them is going to be very important in helping them become Americans.'"