The American Association of Teachers of Italian-Midwest hosted a symposium based on the current “Made in Italy” trend sweeping World Languages. With enrollments diminishing, programs closing, and the lack of teachers to replace retiring teachers and long-term leaves, we need to come together! It is important to begin to look towards the future and to move our classes into a more hands on, career pathway type of methodology, or at least a unit lesson to expose our students to the reality of “life in Italian beyond high school and not just for credit”. 

That isn’t enough anymore. In this way, we can spark the interest of young children, perhaps entice new schools to begin programs in middle schools, and to provide opportunities for our high school students to continue in college/university beyond the AP exam credit.