Boyd welcomes new Spanish teacher

Boyd Christian School will begin its 2008-09 school year with a new Spanish teacher, Amy Corley, who will be coming to the school from Cannon County. Corley will be starting her second stint at the school, having worked there from 1997 to 2000. Corley grew up in Smithville and graduated from DeKalb County High School. She received her college degree, with a major in Spanish, from Tennessee Tech in 1986 and she and her family currently reside in Woodbury. Corley says the goal is to establish a comprehensive language component at Boyd. ‘We want to have a really strong high school Spanish program here,’ Corley said, ‘and offer the basic two years of high school Spanish that you need for college preparation. We’d like to see that expanded to offer Spanish 3, and even hopefully in the future an AP Spanish.’ Corley says the school hopes to provide some Spanish classes to younger students as well. ‘We’d like to also see the younger grades, elementary and middle school, involved,’ Corley said. ‘We will be offering a middle school exploratory program this year. The children will have three months of Spanish in sixth, seventh and eighth grade. They’ll have exposure to Spanish in junior high.’ Corley says its important for students to have exposure to a foreign language, like Spanish, particularly with a growing immigrant population. ‘Do you ever run across anyone who speaks Spanish in Warren County’? Corley asked. ‘I think now it’s very important to learn Spanish because one seventh of our population is immigrant from all nationalities, so not all of them are Hispanic, but a lot of them are. And that number is growing every year. We’re no longer an English only nation, and some may not like that, but that’s the way it is.’ Corley says there are other benefits to students from learning a language. ‘If you learn a language you will be able understand other cultures,’ Corley said. ‘And have a better perspective on our own culture by being exposed to other cultures. You’ll have the ability to communicate with a large segment of the population in this country. You’ll be able to travel in Mexico and anywhere in South America, when you think about it, the whole continent of South America speaks Spanish. If you want to travel, if you want to do mission work, or business, it’s always attractive to business to be able to speak a foreign language. ‘If you’re planning to go into medicine or nursing,’ Corley said. ‘I have a lot of my students who go on to be nurses, and they’re very interested in learning how to speak Spanish so they can communicate with their patients. So it’s very important for a lot of reasons.’ Corley said she decided to go into language because it was one of her best subjects in high school. ‘I made As in it,’ Corley said. ‘I knew that math and science was not for me. Language was the area I seemed to thrive in and enjoy, and I’ve never had any problem finding a job teaching languages.’ Corley says the fact Boyd is a Christian school had an effect on her return to Warren County. ‘It definitely attracted me,’ Corley said. ‘I’ve been in the public schools for four years and have had a good experience, but I’m limited on sharing my faith with my students and my values, so I’m looking forward to being in a Christian school for those reasons.’ Corley will begin her job in August, and says she is ready. ‘I’m very excited about it,’ she said. ‘Starting a new job, it’s going to be fun.’