Gateway News: At first glance, it seemed a little odd to watch senior high school students listening to a woman read a children’s book to them. And the fact that they appeared to be paying close attention was even more surprising.
But this wasn’t just any children’s book, and the woman wasn’t their teacher. Mrs. Nieves Burke was reading the book in Spanish to a class of beginning Spanish students, stopping along the way to translate some of the phrases that they might not have learned yet.
Even if this reporter doesn’t know a word of Spanish, it certainly sounded like Mrs. Burke was fluent in this language, and that’s because her grandparents grew up in Mexico and her mother was born there.
Burke was born in the United States. Her grandparents emigrated from Chihuahua, Mexico in 1917 when Nieves’ mother was only six years old. “My grandmother was a Spanish teacher, so she made sure we spoke Spanish correctly. She thought she could get a job teaching Spanish in this country, but she couldn’t so she made candy and sewed dresses to support the family,” she explained.
Nieves did not learn English until she went to school, and she credits her English teacher with helping her learn the correct structure of our language and how to speak English without an accent.
Today, through STEP she is sharing all that knowledge with Spanish students at the local high school. It’s a win-win situation for both Mrs. Burke and the students.
STEP which stands for Senior Tax Exchange Program provides an opportunity for Social Security eligible senior citizens age 62 or older to work in the schools in exchange for a property tax credit. Senior citizens who own a home and reside in the Spring Valley School District are eligible.
As an incentive to involve seniors in the educational program, the district reimburses them for their time, and they have an opportunity to share their talents, gain an intergenerational experience and make a difference in a student’s life.