A beautiful essay

by Rita Parikh in the Globe and Mail: “Early immersion is a beautiful thing.” It opens:

“Maman, j’ai une moustache de chocolat,” my chocolate-smeared seven-year-old says with a laugh. Although he’s been in French immersion for just two years, the words come easily and his accent rings true.

Sage is the beneficiary of a stunningly successful experiment in British Columbia – one based in research, faith and, in no small part, beauty.

In contrast, the New Brunswick government’s recent decision to eliminate early French immersion and replace it with “intensive French” is only ugly.

Intensive French is a wonderful program, and it should replace the way most Canadians haplessly struggle to learn French. In its innovative ability to stimulate a love of language and instill basic confidence, this approach is unparalleled. However, it was never designed to produce bilingual graduates – immersion is the only program truly designed to achieve that goal.