A unique teaching style: Maria Harrington
Picture of Ms.Harrington next to her desk. (Photo: Raffaella Bravo, The Puma Prensa)
By Raffaella Bravo, opinion editor
For most language teachers, there are four essential components to the curriculum: writing, reading, speaking, and listening. But to learn a second language and achieve bilingualism, Señora Harrington, as she’s known to students, believes also in a fifth— cultural education.
Maria Harrington has been teaching Spanish at Carrillo for 18 years and always makes it a goal to include Spanish culture when teaching the Spanish language. Born and raised in Peru, she thinks it's important to help students understand some of the culture and language they experienced.
Harrington's explanation of what she teaches in her classroom made me realize how vital it is to include knowledge of the culture to immerse yourself in a new language. Learning a language is an excellent opportunity for students, but learning about a culture also increases the value of this experience.
“I think it's important for people to understand that the world is bigger than they think it is and that people think and act differently, and when we realize that I think we have the respect, to appreciate, and to see the difference.”- Harrington
Junior Abigail Mills agrees that, in Harrington's class, learning about Spanish culture was one of her most valuable experiences. “I think it really adds to the curriculum because it helps us understand why certain things in the language are the way they are,” said Mills, who added that for her and many others, the cultural aspects help her visualize a broader understanding of the language and general culture.
Junior James Brown values Harrington's approach to teaching the Spanish language, saying, “I think it's amazing to learn about other cultures and learn how diverse and wonderful this school and the world is.”
Harrington uses every opportunity to implement teaching about Latino culture and history and does so in almost every class. Brown said that “she doesn't necessarily have a curriculum around learning culture but it comes up very frequently in class and talks about the culture of not only Peru but of Latin America.” Many of Harrington’s students show their appreciation for her effort to include teachings of Spanish culture and to have these critical conversations with students about cultures outside of their own. Recently in Harrington's class students were called upon to learn about the culture in specific countries in Latin America. Students will create posters or slideshow presentations and conduct research on their country of choice to learn about the general culture, music, common traditions, traditional clothing, and the languages spoken.
Harrington's daily doses of Spanish culture in class readings from short stories, in bigger projects that require students to learn about specific Latin American cultures, in movies about some of the hardships many Latin people deal with like immigration make her class effective for learning about Latin culture. In a school where a key section of our graduate profile is being a universal citizen, it’s comforting to know that one teacher goes above and beyond to teach empathy and worldliness to her students.