Obama’s inauguration becomes learning experience for Glenwood Springs High School students

Teachers all over the U.S. are using the inauguration to teach different points in their classes. And all students are learning about possibility and politics and immigrants and many other things, along with history. DP

By John Stroud, Glenwood Springs, Colorado

What do teaching a foreign language to high school students and watching U.S. political history as it unfolds have to do with one another?

For Glenwood Springs High School French teacher Sara Malnati, there is a common thread between the art of language and the historic event that played out in Washington, D.C., Tuesday with the inauguration of the nation’s first African-American president, Barack Obama.

“This is certainly a historic event. Anything else I would have to teach my students today is not as important as this moment,” said Malnati, whose French I students watched the inauguration ceremony on television Tuesday morning in the classroom of social studies teacher Joe Rankin.

As newly sworn-in President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were shown standing alongside former President George Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush, Malnati asked her students what message that portrayed.

“Unity,” one student replied. “That they get along,” said another.

True, Malnati said, but it also serves to communicate to the rest of the world that the United States has a peaceful transfer of power when it comes to changing leaders.

“When you teach a language, that’s really about teaching communication,” Malnati said. “And what better way to teach communication than by observing the events going on around you, and using that as a way to teach the target language.”

GSHS senior Shannon O’Gara-Standiford took that message to heart.

“We talked about how (Obama’s election) affects us, and how other countries look on us,” she said. “I’m so excited. It restores my faith in humanity.”

Senior Elizabeth Lopez will use Obama’s inaugural address as the basis for a presentation she will give to her ELL (English Language Learner) classmates on Wednesday.

“Minorities as a group can look at this and have more desire to be something bigger, and know that they can achieve it now,” she said through an interpreter, fellow senior Anna Chavira. “As daughters of immigrants, it means hope to us.”
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