MINT HILL, NC – Queen’s Grant Latin and World History Teacher Ben Henkel and Spanish and Italian Teacher Brad McAlister recently brought their classes together for a hands-on, interdisciplinary project: making pizza!
McAlister began teaching Spanish at Queen’s Grant last year and added an introductory Italian class this year. “I grew up in Italy,” explains McAlister. “I did all of my elementary and middle school there in the North in a little town called Casale Monferrato. Casale was a big city in the middle ages but lost its value after the importance of the Po river declined.”
Queen’s Grant High School is a public charter school located in Mecklenburg county that follows North Carolina’s “Future Ready Course of Study.” Under this course of study, students entering grade 9 beginning in 2021-2022 are required to obtain two elective credits for graduation; world languages is one option alongside arts education and career and technical education.
Queen’s Grant is not the first school in the state to offer Italian – Durham and Wake Counties have consistently offered Italian for years, and it has been offered occasionally in other districts around the state – but it remains a rare elective offering. According to statistics provided by NCDPI, there were 150 students enrolled in Italian in NC for the 2018-2019 school year compared to 270,600 enrolled in Spanish, the state’s most popular world languages offering.
It’s a program that McAlister and Queen’s Grant Principal Josh Swartzlander are excited to be able to offer to Queen’s Grant’s students. “We may not be the first to offer it, but we don’t know of any other schools nearby,” says Swartzlander. McAlister hopes to grow the program, adding second and third level Italian classes in coming years. “Next summer we’re hoping to take a group to Italy,” he adds.
On Thursday, March 3, McAlister’s Italian students joined Henkel’s World History and Latin students to make pizza dough from scratch. Groups of four worked together to mix and knead a basic dough using flour, salt, yeast and water, sealing the dough in a tupperware container to rise and eventually become a pizza for four.
“Pizza is a traditional dish form Southern Italy,” explained McAlister. “It originally comes from the Neapolitan region. It’s often known as a worker’s food because it’s something that you can take on the go. You can fold it into fours, and it would be a handy meal that you could grab and go.”
McAlister’s and Henkel’s classes made “Pizza Margherita,” a dish named in honor of Queen Margherita of Savoy, wife of Vittorio Emmanuele. Legend has it that in an attempt to win favor with her new subjects, the queen selected a pizza that highlighted the colors of the Italian flag: red tomato sauce, white mozzarella and green basil. The simple pie is still known today as the “Margherita.”
“What we know of pizza is from Naples, but every civilization we know had a flatbread,” adds Henkel, explaining the connection to Latin. “The Romans had the pitta, which is where we get the term pizza.”
On Monday, March 7, the students once again convened outdoors around Henkel’s portable propane pizza oven. With temps that can get up to 950 degrees, the students were enjoying authentic Italian pizza in under two minutes. Pizza making proved a great way to immerse students in interdisciplinary, hands-on learning!