Love of language, learning

By Dawn Goodman Staff writer
dgoodman@observer-reporter.com
HOUSTON – Carla Hayes danced on her tip-toes as she urged the boys in her class to sing the alphabet in Spanish.
She sang “A, be, ce,” in a low voice as they sang along.
Then, she called out to the girls, singing in a high-pitched voice for them.
Finally, they all sang in Spanish together.
You could hear the passion, the joy in her voice as she helped her Central Christian Academy fourth-graders learn Spanish.
And you could see how much they enjoyed learning from her.
Perhaps it was because they sensed how much she loved teaching or perhaps it was the way she made learning fun, by singing songs, playing Jeopardy or having the Spanish Super Bowl.
She also said she tries to incorporate culture into her foreign language classes.
“I think that is so important for the kids,” Hayes said.
Just to walk in her classroom and watch her teach, you would never know that 51-year-old Hayes can’t see.
However, she was born blind.
At age 3, she was sent to Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind. She attended the boarding school until the end of her ninth-grade year. As a child, she wanted to grow up and buy the school so she could have all of the Braille books there.
Mainstreaming, which requires special education students to be educated in a general education classroom, kicked in during her 10th-grade year.
Hayes was then the only blind student at Peters Township High School. She described the change as culture shock because Peters Township was much less rigid. She didn’t have to line up for each class. And something else was missing, too.
“There were no Braille books there,” she said.
Still, she found a way to make it work and a high school Spanish teacher helped her love the language.
After graduation, she attended Westminster College as a music major.
She played the saxophone in the band at both schools before college. She even started her own band, BOM, or Band of McMurray. At any given time, she had up to 17 members, who played everything from flutes to drums.
“We practiced and played in churches,” she recalled.
She said students at the school for the blind did not believe she had a band.
“So I said, ‘I’m going to bring them down here,’” she said, laughing. “And I did.”
As much as she loved music, Hayes did not graduate with a music degree. She said the competition at the collegiate level made her start to hate it.
“Music ceased being fun and started being clinical,” she said. “It broke my heart.”
She dropped the music major to keep her love of music. After a short stint as a speech and broadcasting major, she changed to French and Spanish double majors. She also earned an education degree and went on to earn a degree in German from Washington & Jefferson College.
Hayes learned Latin on her own and is now studying Italian.
“The language bug had bitten me, and I couldn’t get away from it,” Hayes said.
She taught French in Peters Township and several languages at the now-defunct Washington Christian School. She taught German at Trinity until she was furloughed. She taught part-time at Fort Cherry.
Hayes also started her own business called Lengua-Learn Communication in 1989. Prior to that, she was tutoring and teaching classes at the library during her periods of unemployment between teaching stints.
She thought she could turn that into a successful business – and she has. She works for companies, training their employees in another language. She teaches homeschoolers and also teaches English as a second language.
She’s the president of the local chapter of the Washington County Council for the Blind and the vice president for Independent Visually Impaired Entrepreneurs.
The same year she started her business, the Central Christian principal approached her about teaching two days a week at the school.
“I’ve been doing both ever since,” she said of running her business and teaching at the school.
Dot Moore, the aide who works with Hayes in class, said she doesn’t just teach students, she talks to students who have issues, she prays with them, she encourages them. She tells them they can call her about homework or problems.
“She reaches out to them as people,” Moore said. “You don’t get that everywhere.”
Central Christian administrator Kate Giacalone said Hayes does not let her disability stand in the way of carrying out her teaching duties.
“It’s a blessing to watch her in action,” Giacalone said. “A true joy.”
Hayes has traveled but said she never wants to move away from the area. She still lives in the home in McMurray that her parents moved into when she was 6 months old. Her mother drives her to and from school.
“I have the connections here,” she said. “I live for the moment in Giant Eagle when one of my students comes up to me.”
Hayes said she loves teaching.
“There’s nothing like the kids to bring a smile to your face,” she said. “These are my kiddos. I’m going to do it as long as the good Lord allows.”

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