041: Spanish Language Immersion with Lindsey Barnes and David Hernández of The Dahlia School

Trillium Montessori Talks

Studies have shown that children who are in language immersion programs through the elementary years end up becoming more proficient in their home language as they get older, and they also experience the benefits of cultural awareness.

In today’s episode, I’m chatting with Lindsey Barnes, Executive Director, and David Hernández, Elementary Teacher Leader, of The Dahlia School in San Francisco. We dive into language immersion and why they prefer that method versus bilingual education, as well as why they encourage their students to speak Spanish to each other in the classroom.

We also discuss why diversity is a priority for Lindsey, the challenges and successes of starting and running a micro school, and her vision for The Dahlia School going forward.

What’s in this episode:

Why Lindsey was inspired to start The Dahlia School, offer a Spanish immersion curriculum, and why diversity was a big priority for her as a Black mom

The benefits of exposing children to a multilingual curriculum and integrating languages into curriculum at the elementary level

Why The Dahlia School is 100% language immersion instead of a bilingual classroom

Why Lindsey and David encourage their students to speak Spanish to each other and set up natural environments for the language education to flourish

The challenges and successes of starting and running a micro school

Lindsey’s vision for the future of The Dahlia School

Lindsey’s advice for starting a Wildflower school

For full show notes, resources, links and to download the transcript, visit:

https://www.trilliummontessori.org/podcast/

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

The Dahlia School of San Francisco

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