wear costumes of their favorite country." In the late 1970s, AISD's Department of Bilingual Education developed the "Title VII Bilingual Program" in order to meet the objectives of the Bilingual Education Act. Dawson and Becker were part of an "experimental group" of AISD schools to develop "experience-based curriculum" in tandem with bilingual education.[8] For instance, in 1979, Dawson and Becker students learned about the history of the vaquero in their social studies lessons, and then students participated in a field trip, sponsored by the Title VII Bilingual Program, to the Asociacion de Charros de Austin "charreada" exhibition, or Mexican rodeo. Progressive education Simultaneous with starting a bilingual education program in 1972, Dawson initiated a Montessori-inspired approach to teaching students, or what was described as its "first individually guided education program, in which students are permitted to learn at their own rate." As a visiting reporter observed, "with students darting in and out, the teachers working with one particular group of students, and other groups of children working unassisted at their materials – each helping the other – the room hardly resembles the traditional classroom situation adults can remembers." During the 1970s, Dawson regularly applied progressive models for elementary education. Literature In her memoir, Spoken From the Heart, First Lady Laura Bush recalled the time she worked as the librarian at Dawson Elementary. Then going by her maiden name, Laura Welch, she oversaw Dawson's library from 1974 to 1977. Recalling her time at Dawson, Bush wrote, "Unlike other urban schools during that era, Dawson was lucky to have music, art, and physical education teachers, along with a librarian, and we were the only educators who had a chance to work with every student in the school." She added, "We taught our students about American history not simply with textbooks and time lines but through the music, art, and literature of the Revolutionary period. During gym, the students played Revolutionary-era games and learned colonial dances. We used grant money to take the children on field trips to the historic sites of Laredo and San Antonio. Many of our kids had barely been out of the confines of greater Austin." Bush's recollections offer some insight into the culture of the school and its socio-economics. Bush's fellow teacher, Judy Harbour, recalled how Laura Bush "jumped right in" to the culture of the school: "Laura fixed up the library as if it were a restaurant,