St. Patrick School will teach Italian

Basic words and phrases, songs and developing vocabulary will be the focus.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
HUBBARD -- Some help from a group of Italian businessmen in Detroit will enable the St. Patrick School to begin teaching Italian to its youngest pupils this fall.
"I have been wanting to bring Italian in for some time," said Principal Rita Gontaruk, but it wasn't until she was able to link up with an assistant professor of foreign languages and literatures at Youngstown State University that her wish became a reality.
Dr. Iole Checcone already had a working relationship with the NOI Foundation based in Detroit. It's a group of Italian businessmen from that area who, in partnership with the Italian Consulate office in that city, provide funds for the teaching of Italian. Ohio is part of the consular district served by Detroit.
Checcone said she's already brought Italian to St. Christine School in Youngstown, Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Niles, Villa Maria Teresa day care in Hubbard and Canfield Middle School with foundation funding.
Gontaruk said St. Patrick's intends to introduce Italian to children in kindergarten through the fourth grade this fall.
It will be worked into the language arts classes one period each week, she said. Language arts is basically an English course dealing with speech and writing.
Gontaruk said the school's Spanish teacher, who teaches that language to pupils in grades five through eight, was born in Italy and speaks the language fluently. She couldn't be spared from her regular teaching duties, however, to add the teaching of Italian to the children.
Getting involved
That's where Checcone and YSU enter the picture.
Checcone is able to get enough funds from the NOI Foundation to buy some books and other materials and she will send YSU undergraduate students majoring in Italian to the school to teach the children elementary Italian.
Only YSU students who are interested in becoming teachers will get the chance to be in the classroom at the school, Checcone said. They'll teach the children basic words and phrases, songs and vocabulary.
It's volunteer work on their part, although the foundation does provide a small amount of money to reimburse them for the cost of gas to drive from the campus to the school, she said.
Gontaruk said St. Patrick gets about 20 new students from Villa Maria Teresa every year, and they already have some background in Italian.
The nuns at Villa Maria are all native speakers of the language and teach the children in their day-care program Italian poetry, songs and more. Expanding that exposure at St. Patrick seems like a natural fit, Gontaruk said.
Right now the program will be running on a year-to-year basis, but Gontaruk said she would like to see it become a permanent part of the curriculum.
"I'm truly interested, and so are many of our parents," she said.
gwin@vindy.com