Bilingualism in the Metz Library

An article detailing new bilingual programming in AISD 

A Need for Change

It's widely known that Hispanic culture held a special place in the Metz community and a huge part of that heritage was the Spanish language. In 1973, 72% of students at Metz spoke Spanish, with 1 in 5 students speaking Spanish alone. Yet, 100% of the books in the Metz Elementary school library were in English. By the 1970s, the implementation of bilingual education programs in Austin schools was becoming a possibility, after the previous state legislation forbidding instruction in a language other than English was changed. With these changes came an influx of experimental bilingual programs (Katz, Statesman, A13). This would open the door for 50 years of bilingual education initiatives at Metz. The first of these would be Spanish additions to the library collection. 

Beginnings 

José Flores, principal of Metz from 1973-1984, recognized the centrality of the Spanish language in the lives of many students at Metz, and foresaw the benefits of including Spanish language books in the school’s library. In 1974, the school received $1000 to implement a new bilingual-bicultural education program. Librarian Janell  Stewart and Gilbert Cantu travelled to San Antonio to purchase new Spanish-centric materials. These included not only books in Spanish for all grade levels, but also instructional materials on Spanish culture for teachers, and cassette tapes, film strips, and other forms of new media which made information more digestible for students (Bos, 12). Bilingualism has since become a central component of the Metz Elementary curriculum, and in 1980 even made its way into the Metz Philosophy:

“We strive for a bilingual and multicultural concept of total education which will enrich the child’s experience and overall development. We respect the community and strive for community involvement in the overall development of the child.”

Con Un Cariño en Español

Principal Flores’s successor, Jorge Luis Rodríguez, also recognized the importance of the library:

“We had speakers that would come and read to the kids in multi-languages. I made it a point to read to kids in the library and in the classrooms. I read to kids regularly. Not because I loved to read, because I do/ But because I wanted kids to hear someone read en ingles y espanol, con un cariño en espanol [translated from Spanish into English as “...in English and Spanish, with an affection for Spanish’]

The most important thing that we do is encourage [and] recognize the language that the kids speak, whatever language that is… And we have to enrich. And one of the greatest opportunities we have to enrich is through the library. And so I felt very strongly that we needed to have the kind of materials that the kids would read, that the parents would read, that would be fun, that would be interesting, that would be multi-level and that would be current. And that [the materials] would not be stereotypic. So yeah, we devoted a lot of funds to the library” (Rodriguez 2003).

A 'proposed solution' to a water surplus problem at the Old Metz

Putting in the Work: Pat Kaplan

Principals like José Flores and Jorge Luis Rodríguez were invaluable for allocating the necessary funds for bilingual additions to the library, but there was a lot of work to be done within the library itself, as well. Librarians were instrumental in organizing the library’s collections, and in Pat Kaplan’s case, protecting them  from infrastructural damage. As librarian from 1988-1996, Kaplan completely moved the Metz library collection on three separate occasions. Once from the top floor of the ‘old Metz’ building to the basement after fear that the weight of the library was causing too much structural stress, then to Webb Middle School during construction of the ‘new Metz’, and finally to its current location. Pat Kaplan also worked to expand the collection of Spanish books in the library, and integrate them into the English collection. Pat was not a native Spanish speaker, but she learned enough to be able to evaluate the quality of Spanish books in catalogues, and also consulted bilingual teachers on the new additions (Bos, 21-23). Pat continued to volunteer at the library after her retirement, and it’s because of librarians like her that Metz’s Spanish book collection is so impressive. 

Current photo of the Metz Library

Endings 

In its final year, the Metz library is no longer in use. The shelves are filled with books, all in a mixture of English and Spanish, and organized using the Dewey Decimal system. Boxes are stacked behind the librarian’s desk, and extra supplies cover the tables. Nobody is quite sure where the books in the Metz collection will end up, but luckily, we know where they’ve been. They’ve travelled from publishing offices, to the hands of caring librarians, and into the laps of Future Best Sellers, where they taught students that the Metz Library was a place where they were always allowed to be themselves.