The Maine Township High School Dist. 207 Board of Education announced a new textbook and level two course for Assyrian at Monday's (Oct. 7) school board meeting.

The course continues to draw an increasing number of students interested in taking it as a world language course.

"Mainly because of our Assyrian population, we've had over 100 students indicate that if we were able to offer it, then they would take it," said Assistant Supt. of Curriculum Shawn Messmer. "Unlike many times, we've had over 100 students sign up for it, so it was a pretty impressive turnout. Very often, we are thinking about operating something new. That's the way to do it."

Messmer mentioned that a particularly difficult part of setting up the new course for Assyrian 2 was finding a teacher with a fluent background in the language and education. However, the district was able to find someone a few weeks before the start of the current school year.

The new textbook is "The Book of my Language-Assyrian" by Michael Alexan Younan and is meant for the Assyrian 1 course. According to the official district memo, the textbook copies came at no cost to Dist. 207. This came after a revaluation of resources for the current Assyrian 1.

The new course, Assyrian 2, will be implemented this year and offered at Maine East based on the interested student population. As of now, there are 84 students that can move on from Assyrian 1 to 2. Aside from understanding the language, the course will also focus on ancient and modern Assyrian culture and history and the impacts they made.