Building bridges of beauty between the rich lanquages and cultures of the
American Southwest

Puente de Hozho Trilingual Magnet School

On a warm August morning in 2001, 58 children in Flagstaff, Arizona set out for their first day of kindergarten and instantly became young pioneers. They were the first enrollees in a new and innovative trilingual immersion school, Puente de Hozho. The school’s name is a combination of the Spanish words puente de (“bridge of”) and the Navajo word hozho (“beauty, peace, harmony”). Literally, the name means “bridge of beauty” and mirrors the vision of the school: to build bridges of beauty between the rich languages and cultures of the American Southwest.

Since the 1990s, many English-speaking parents in the Flagstaff community had expressed a desire for their children to be educated in two languages. At the same time, a high percentage of language minority students (mostly Hispanic and American Indian) were failing and dropping out of school. In addition, Navajo elders were distressed because fewer and fewer Navajo children could speak their tribal language.

Puente de Hozho evolved in response to all three of the above concerns. The idea was to create an educational environment where students of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds could learn harmoniously together while pursuing “the Power of Two,” or the ability to speak, read, and write proficiently in two languages. On a grander scale, the vision was to create a school where each child’s language and culture was regarded not as a problem to be solved but as an indispensable resource, the very heart and soul of the school itself. Such a school could be a symbiotic juggernaut, mutually beneficial to all: English speakers would learn Spanish, Spanish speakers would learn English, Navajo children would acquire their tribal language, and all students would interact harmoniously and achieve academically. If this school could be built from kindergarten to twelfth grade, drop-out rates would plummet and academic achievement would soar. Social and cultural problems would diminish as students from diverse backgrounds learned together, played together, and not only talked together but spoke in one another’s languages and better understood the depths of one another’s minds and hearts.

Puente de Hozho has three primary goals: Academic excellence, Bilingualism, and Cultural enrichment. Upon enrollment, students choose either the Spanish/English or the Navajo/English program. A two-way immersion model is used in the Spanish/English program, and a one-way immersion model is used in the Navajo/English program. In the two-way immersion program, English and Spanish speaking children learn one another’s languages by being instructed for half of the day in English and the other half of the day in Spanish. In the one-way immersion program, students who already speak English are “immersed” in Navajo for most of the day in kindergarten. Each year thereafter, the amount of English instruction is increased until there is a 50/50 balance between the two languages. According to school principal Dawn Trubakoff, the power of the two bilingual programs is that they are school-wide endeavors rather than auxiliary programs. Bilingual education is the reason the school exists, and the goals of the school and those of the two programs are inseparable.

Puente de Hozho provides its students and their parents with unique opportunities for cultural enrichment. The school sponsors several high profile cultural events, such as a week long series of activities to commemorate American Indian Week in September and Hispanic Cultural Week in May. Each semester students present a major community performance featuring cultural songs and dances from around the world. More importantly, teachers incorporate into their daily instruction activities that promote an understanding and appreciation of the cultures represented not only within the school but throughout the world. Cultural enrichment is simply part of the daily curriculum at Puente de Hozho. In the words of Trubakoff, “We’re trying to walk the talk. We want each teacher to bring their language and culture into the classroom—in the way they talk, the way they dress, the way they act.”

Both the one-way and two-way immersion models have been quite successful academically and otherwise. For instance, in the spring of 2003, 79% of our English language learners (ELLs) were reclassified as “Fluent English Proficient” after only one year at Puente de Hozho School. Students in the one-way immersion program scored at the 71st percentile in Reading and at the 84th percentile in Math on the spring 2003 Stanford 9 Achievement Test (SAT 9). In April of 2004, students in the Navajo immersion program competed in the Navajo Language Arts Fair in Tsaile, Arizona on the Navajo Reservation. Students from all parts of the Navajo reservation participated. They sang songs, performed choal readings and dramatizations, sang solos, and told jokes, all in Navajo. Puente de Hozho students won 8 of the 15 awards that were presented for their grade levels.

Other success indicators include exceptionally high levels of parent involvement and an extensive waiting list to enroll in the school. For example, over 150 students are currently on the waiting list for the fall of 2005 with only 75 available enrollments. The school is not without its challenges. Finding qualified teachers for the various languages can be difficult. The lack of instructional materials in Navajo is a problem endemic to indigenous language programs. Bussing students from all parts of Flagstaff in a timely manner is a constant dilemma.

One of the greatest challenges has been respecting the individual differences between the three languages and cultures while developing a single Puente de Hozho culture. This “harmonizing without homogenizing” can often be a tightrope act, but Trubakoff has been masterful at striking the right balance. “We’re making a long term commitment for these children to become bilingual,” she says. “It takes time, but we’re in this for the long haul.” According to Trubakoff, the intrinsic benefits of the school and its programs far outweigh the challenges, and patience and perseverance have been the code words to success. Just as Rome was not built in a day, neither was this very unique bridge of beauty.

The community response to the school has been overwhelming. In three years, the student body has increased from the original cohort of 58 kindergarten students to almost 400 students. Another 150 kindergarten students are on the waiting list for the fall of 2005, and the waiting list is back-dated to 2010. In addition, this fall Puente de Hozho finally received a home of its own and a principal when it moved from the high school to a permanent building. The long-range plan is to continue to grow the school a grade each year through twelfth grade. Most likely, all 13 grades would not be housed at the same site, but a Puente de Hozho Middle School and Puente de Hozho High School are possibilities.

Part of Puente de Hozho’s vision is the development of a center for the cultural and performing arts. Looking ahead to the future when the now primary aged children are in middle school and high school, we can anticipate a variety of high-quality cultural performances and productions: bilingual theater written and directed by the students; cultural dance fests; art exhibits; poetry readings in Spanish, Navajo, and English and replica villages where students demonstrate traditional cultural arts. While not every student will be an accomplished dancer, actor, musician or writer, every child will have the opportunity to experience these different venues in the cultural arts. In time, some will lean more towards writing or producing or set design or the technological aspects of production. Every child will find a niche and will be involved in a significant way. Every child will play a part in preserving and embellishing that rich multi-cultural tapestry that is the American Southwest.

Michael Fillerup
Director for Bilingual Education
Flagstaff Unified School District
Flagstaff, Arizona
mfilleru@apscc.org

Originally published at The Foreign Language Educator

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