Little School of the 400
Ganado, Jackson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Little School of the 400 was an educational project developed to integrate Spanish-speaking school children into the mainstream public school population. The program sought to teach these children a vocabulary of 400 essential words to enable them to successfully complete the first grade. Isabel Verver, a 17-year-old Ganado High School student, read an article in a Spring 1957 issue of Texas Outlook Magazine that expressed Felix Tijerina's desire for such a program. Tijerina was a successful Houston businessman as well as the national president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). Verver contacted Tijerina and expressed her desire to implement such a program. Both Tijerina and Verver knew what it was like to be a first-grader unable to communicate with their teachers or fellow students, and hoped to remove that language barrier. Baytown educator Elizabeth Burrus supplied a list of 400 vocabulary words to Tijerina that she had formulated from years of teaching bilingual students. Verver taught the pilot class in Ganado during the summer of 1957 and produced 60 "graduates" in time for the fall school term. Seeing Verver's success, LULAC established similar classes in towns such as Vanderbilt, Edna, Sugar Land, Aldine, Brookshire and Wharton for summer 1958. Tijerina and members of LULAC worked for passage of House Bill 51 during the 56th Texas Legislature. The bill established a state-sponsored program called preschool instructional classes for non-English speaking children and eliminated the need for the privately funded "Little Schools." Head Start and other federally-funded programs of the 1960s eventually took the place of the state-sponsored program. (2009)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Little School of the 400 grew from a bold idea: teach Spanish-speaking children roughly 400 essential English words so they could succeed in first grade. In 1957, Ganado high schooler Isabel Verver read of LULAC president Felix Tijerina's wish for such a program, wrote to him, and taught the pilot class that summer, graduating sixty children before the fall term. Its success spread to towns across the region and helped inspire a state-funded preschool program that later foreshadowed Head Start.
Why it matters
This grassroots effort by Mexican American educators reshaped how Texas—and eventually the nation—approached bilingual early education, an important chapter in the fight for equal schooling.
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Related people
- · Isabel Verver
- · Felix Tijerina
- · Elizabeth Burrus
Related events
- · Founding of the Little School of the 400 (1957)
Themes & tags
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