Mariner, Beacon middle schools to offer Spanish

Beacon and Mariner middle schools will have a new exploratory course beginning in September, when the district expands its world language program to offer Spanish to students.

Cape Supervisor of Secondary Education Michael Young told school board members July 25 that teachers have been hired and courses are being designed to focus on novice standards to prepare students for a more rigorous high school curriculum.

“All students will have the opportunity to participate in the world language program in grades six, seven and eight,” Young said.

Young said students will have at least one nine-week course that follows the Delaware world readiness standards for learning languages. He said he would like the program to offer French and Italian in the future.

“This is very near and dear to my heart,” Young said. “I myself speak a foreign language, German, and I lived in Germany so I value this very much.”

Cape Superintendent Bob Fulton said with children in the Spanish immersion program now entering second grade and Spanish available in middle school, students will be able to take a different world language when they reach high school.

“In a lot of other places around the world, people don’t just speak their own language, they speak two, three other languages,” Fulton said. “That’s what we’re trying to start here and change the culture so it’s just the norm to speak more than one language.”