Spanish

In the early years foreign language instruction consisted of conversational French enhanced by lessons in French cooking. As the school matured, it was clear that more formal instruction should be adopted in a language that had a wider audience in Philadelphia, namely Spanish. Jésus Rodriguez and later Barbara Cortínez-Maurer designed a program that included twice weekly classes for all grade levels that exposed students not only to the language but the culture of Spanishspeaking countries. Marco Velis, a friend of Barbara’s, who first came to help us paint sets for a Shakespeare Festival in the early 1990’s, soon joined the staff and has these memories of his thirty years at TPS:

I joined The Philadelphia School in 1992 when TPS was turning 20 years old. It was also the year that the entire country commemorated Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the New World five hundred years earlier. At that time the school was about half of the size that it is today in students and faculty. That year, as it was a tradition at the time, the teachers would prepare a short presentation to introduce the year’s all-school theme. We wrote and performed a short play about Columbus’ voyage. The interesting thing was not only that the teachers dressed in costumes and acted in front of the students, but we also did it in the Multi-Purpose Room, where the entire school– students, faculty administration, and some parents– fit comfortably.

At that time all specials classes (art, music, PE, and Spanish) were vertically grouped, with the exception of Middle School. My room, the Quad, was in the center of the second floor, and it disappeared when the gym was built (1999-2000).

During my first two years at TPS, was the only Spanish teacher for the entire school, but due to the constant growth in the number of students, it was necessary to invite another teacher to work in Spanish (eventually, our Spanish team grew to five teachers in 2015). In 1994 my dear colleague Lisa Morales came to be part of our Spanish team. Lisa brought many years of experience and ideas to enrich our program. Among them, she proposed the idea of traveling with the students to a Spanish-speaking country to offer a full immersion experience. Although It wasn’t easy to convince the school and the parents that it would be a safe trip, eventually, in 1997, we traveled to Mexico with twelve students. During the following 22 years, the students traveled to many countries, but unfortunately during the pandemic, it was necessary to cancel our trip. However this current year the trip will take place again. Our graduating class traveled and learned to Puerto Rico to practice their Spanish and learned about the five hundred years of history and culture of Borinquen.

My thirty years at TPS have taught me that although we have been constantly challenged to adapt to new things and change, important core values remain, like empowering students to develop their own path to learning, which continue to motivate and rejuvenate this institution. In many ways, TPS is different but also remains the same.