Like many of the students in her New York City kindergarten, Liza Tilson's first language was Spanish. Born in Columbia in 1919, of a Russian-Jewish father and a Spanish-Catholic mother, She immigrated to the U.S. in 1924. But unlike the children she taught more than forty years later, when "she, herself" entered kindergarten in 1925, she was "the only" non-English-speaking child in the whole school, and bilingual programs had not yet been heard of.

In her late forties, feeling considerable doubt and trepidation, she was recruited into the initial group of teachers in New York City's experimental and controversial bilingual program, and placed in a school where 75% of the students were non-English-speaking Hispanic children. With patience, determination, and as a matter of personal pride, she survived a rough initiation and a stressful and challenging first year.

After that came the good stuff-the subject matter of this book-the wonderful kids In a series of enchanting, heart-warming "sketches" full of humor, mischief, and (much too often) sadness, Mrs. Tilson has captured the authentic flavor of each child's unique personality, and recreated for us, with all its joys and sorrows, successes and failures, the colorful world of an "inner city" bilingual kindergarten.

Why would a beautiful, seemingly healthy and happy child, who does very well in school from kindergarten through 8th grade, suddenly become totally derailed at age 14, and spend the rest of his life employing his considerable resourcefulness and intelligence to defy all the rules of common sense and "normal" living to follow some undefined vision of personal "freedom"? In an ultimately unrewarding battle of wills, this mother-son relationship travels a rocky road of sharing and silent withholding, caring and indifference, loving marred by episodes of helpless anger, frustration, disapproval and despair. The love survived. The sense of loss will never go away.

Like many of the students in her New York City kindergarten, Liza Tilson's first language was Spanish. Born in Columbia in 1919, of a Russian-Jewish father and a Spanish-Catholic mother, She immigrated to the U.S. in 1924. But unlike the children she taught more than forty years later, when "she, herself" entered kindergarten in 1925, she was "the only" non-English-speaking child in the whole school, and bilingual programs had not yet been heard of.

In her late forties, feeling considerable doubt and trepidation, she was recruited into the initial group of teachers in New York City's experimental and controversial bilingual program, and placed in a school where 75% of the students were non-English-speaking Hispanic children. With patience, determination, and as a matter of personal pride, she survived a rough initiation and a stressful and challenging first year.

After that came the good stuff-the subject matter of this book-the wonderful kids In a series of enchanting, heart-warming "sketches" full of humor, mischief, and (much too often) sadness, Mrs. Tilson has captured the authentic flavor of each child's unique personality, and recreated for us, with all its joys and sorrows, successes and failures, the colorful world of an "inner city" bilingual kindergarten.