More Than Words

ON A SUNNY FRIDAY

afternoon in July, silence fills most of Baker-Berry Library. However, the brightly lit, high-ceilinged classroom in the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning (DCAL) buzzes with activity. Professor John Rassias eagerly watches 40 Mexican teachers present sample lessons based on the language methods he's been instructing them in for the past 10 days.

Ricardo Orduno, a teacher from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico, prepares to go first. "I'm feeling excited," he says. "There are butterflies going up and down. It makes me feel alive."

That he and the others feel so energized at the end of a whirlwind schedule of intensive language instruction and cultural immersion is a testament to the strength of the new program that brought them to Dartmouth. The Inter-American Partnership for Education (IAPE) is a collaboration among five organizations: the Rassias Center for World Languages and Cultures (formerly the Rassias Foundation); Worldfund, a nongovernmental organization founded by Luanne Zurlo '87 in 2002 to improve life and reduce poverty in Latin America through education; the Ministry of Education in Mexico; Nextel Mexico; and the Fundacion Televisa. "It was a logical match made in heaven," says IAPE director Jim Citron '86.

Supported by the Clinton Global Initiative, founded by former President Bill Clinton, the program aims to improve limited English language instruction in Mexico through the Rassias method so well known to Dartmouth students and alums. First year costs of the program total $200,000.

"Its about breaking loose from ancient patterns of behavior," says Rassias. He hopes that by encouraging critical thinking and creativity the newly trained teachers can challenge the system of repetition and rote memorization currently used in Mexican public schools, ultimately affecting more than 50,000 students.

Forty teachers chosen from 120 applicants participated this year (following a 20-person 2007 pilot program) and an anticipated 80 to 100 will be trained in each of the next two years. All will return to Mexico and train other teachers.

Rassias stresses the importance of a teacher's authenticity and confidence in connecting with students. "It's about getting to the heart of the student and the heart of the matter," he says, noting that the teachers are ready to put the lessons they've learned into action.

"They approach teaching with deep commitment and passion."

Their zeal emerges when the groups begin presenting. As Orduno's group begins, the bustling room quiets down. But the silence doesn't last long as he launches into a drill lesson on the parts of the body in a booming voice. He gestures enthusiastically, like many in the groups to follow, and the room is once again filled with warm, jovial laughter and voices of those eager to learn—and to teach.

OVERHEARD "How many times must we relearn the Hessons of Prohibition?" -AMETHYST INITIATIVE STATEMENT SIGNED BY PRESIDENT JAMES WRIGHT THIS SUMMER. SIGNATORIES SEEK "AN INFORMED AND DISPASSIONATE PUBLIC DEBATE" ABOUT LOWERING THE LEGAL DRINKING AGE FROM 21 TO 18.