Submitted Photo
A group of students at Adele Harrison Middle School, heads draped in long cloths, were joined last week by companions in everyday attire, as they sang a traditional Spanish song of the Christmas season. The students, half of them Latino and half Anglos, were re-enacting the modest drama that is performed for eight consecutive nights in villages, towns and cities throughout Mexico before Christmas. Known as “Las Posadas,” these little plays depict the travails of Joseph and Mary as they sought a place to stay – “posarse.” In Mexico the event is the prelude to an eight-night series of parties for the whole community, each hosted in a different home. Teacher Joy Andrus commented, “Our students have been able to share knowledge about customs and traditions.”
The students who brought this tradition to Adele Harrison are in their ninth and final year in the dual immersion program. Starting in kindergarten, they have followed a course of studies in both English and Spanish that is designed so that all students, whatever their native language, leave middle school as fluent speakers, readers and writers of both English and Spanish.
