After the first few weeks, Wolter will address students strictly in Italian and those students will hopefully be able to continue in the program through high school if the program progresses as expected.
Victory hosted an open house and on hand were Mayor Tom Barrett, Italian Immersion School principal Ralph DeVito, of course, Italian Community Center president Mike Palmisano and other local Italian-American and MPS dignitaries.
The bright-eyed students looked eager and the classroom looked bright and inviting. Wolter is the classic kindergarten teacher, full of smiles and with a lilting voice. It clearly runs in the family, too, as her friendly and personable Genoese aunt, who was also on hand, proved. The walls had Italian-language posters and the shelves were lined with books in Italian.
Milwaukee already has French, German and Spanish immersion schools and the Milwaukee School of Languages (a high school) and Mandarin will be added to the list next year.
According to a recent media story 13,500 MPS students -- that's about 15 percent -- are studying foreign languages. Let's hope that was a typo or future Milwaukee will be woefully underprepared for the global economy.
"It is important to realize that children today require tools that will
prepare them for the future," says De Vito. "In a diverse community, those tools involve knowledge of a culture besides their own."
MPS' immersion schools are a great way to achieve this.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
