From CEC:
There will be a press briefing at 11, and at 12 a public announcement which will be open to the public. The main event, with Graham and Lamrock, will be at the Centennial Bldg, with public overflow a block away at the Crowne Plaza (Lord Beaverbrook Hotel) being simulcast.
I expect there will be many interested parties in attendance, and I hope as many of you who can attend will.
may be light in the next little while as the latest post-secondary education report has hit the fan.
One thing about the Liberals: they are consistent.
For the latest news, events, updates, and media links on FSL, go to these fine sites:
And be sure to read the new hand-out from CEC, Be bilingual in this place (download PDF). It’s a thing of beauty. Pass it on.
DFWSP™
That is all.
Monday June 23
7:30pm, Room 404, Tilley Hall, UNBPurpose: To reconnect as a group in light of recent developments and in advance of the “info sessions” District 18 is holding on June 25 and 28.
Bring your ideas for action and information on all aspects of French Second Language programs and be prepared to share them with the group.
Bring a friend or two! Please share this message with everyone that you know that cares.
IMPORTANT: The SJ and area CEL meeting has been postponed due to conflicting commitments for two of the scheduled speakers. Watch this space — or Facebook or here or here — for details of the rescheduled event.
UPDATE (10/6/08): The SJ and area CEL meeting has been postponed due to conflicting commitments for two of the scheduled speakers. Watch this space — or Facebook or here or here — for details of the rescheduled event.
On May 14 in Fredericton and May 27 in Moncton, concerned citizens attending information sessions about the changes to French-language education in New Brunswick. They learned about the problems with the Croll-Lee Report and heard the government arguments in favour of the changes rebuffed. Attendees learnt how the new program will not produce functionally bilingual graduates, and were introduced to the details of a new alternative French Second Language Plan.
It’s time for Saint John to find out the truth behind the Shawn Graham plan to eliminate French Immersion, remove all French instruction between kindergarten and grade 4, and force all students into the same intensive French programme in grade 5. A similar information meeting will take place in Saint John at the Mary Oland Theatre in the New Brunswick Museum (NOT UNBSJ as announced earlier) on Thurs. June 12 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm.
This meeting is open to everyone. Invite your friends and family.
From Citizens for Educational Choice:
The hearing is Wednesday June 4th, 9:30am at the Saint John Provincial Courthouse on Charlotte Street near King’s Square. The hearing is open to the public so we should be sure to fill the court-room.
[from CEC:]
In recent days, Minister Lamrock has been circulating the following text to justify his plans for French education in NB. A team of us from the Citizens for Educational Choice have taken on the task of annotating the Minister’s argument, pointing out errors in fact and argumentation. Although the details are to be found in the following pages, some general points arise repeatedly.
- The Minister misuses French language learning scholarship. For example, his many misrepresentations of the ideas of Dr. Fred Genesee of McGill has resulted in a letter from Dr. Genesee explaining the problems. If the Minister wants the benefit of experts in FSL, he should assign them with the task of devising an FSL plan for the province or, at very least, heed their warnings regarding the Croll and Lee recommendations.
- The Minister seems to persist in misunderstanding the nature of French immersion. In this text he presents it as a challenge that suits higher-achieving students; whereas we understand from the works of Dr. Dicks, Dr. Genesee and others, and from the experience of other provinces such as Nova Scotia, that EFI can be accessible to nearly all children.
- The Minister erroneously argues that the many studies before Croll and Lee support his innovations: they simply do not, and we encourage all to read these reports and determine the truth for themselves. In fact, since the Scraba report of 2002, NB has been encouraged to improve participation and retention in EFI by increasing the resources required to support students within the EFI program.
- The Minister argues weakly against this less disruptive and more standard solution: he claims that it cannot be done because it has not been done or because a fully detailed plan for this approach does not exist.
- The Minister frequently suggests that any report or expert opinion which supports an entry point for French immersion later than the current grade one entry point also lends support to his plan for immersion to begin only in grade 6 because such opinions support a ‘later’ date. We believe that if he were to consult with the authors of these reports, he would find that they consider the grade 6 entry point which he proposes to be quite worse than the grade 2 or grade 3 entry points that some experts advise.
- Finally, in the title of the piece and throughout, the Minister wishes to suggest that the past two months have been a time of ’study’, which should now conclude in a decision. We hope our comments will show that the Minister and Croll and Lee are very far from having studied the topic well, and that the decisions made in haste and ignorance thus far should be delayed so that a true and careful course can be plotted for this important aspect of our province’s public education system.
Below you will find the Minister’s original text in italics and our critique in plain text following each point he makes.
From Citizens for Educational Choice:
Moncton — Citizens for Educational Choice (CEC) is hosting an information session in Moncton, Tuesday May 27th, 6:30 p.m. The meeting will take place at University de Moncton, Rémi-Rossignol Building, Faculty of Sciences, Room R-221 (on 2nd floor). CEC represents a diverse group of citizens and is comprised of New Brunswickers who disagree with the Graham government’s proposed changes to the French Second Language education model. For more information email Clea Ward at cleapage@hotmail.com.
Be sure to stop by our home on the web and discuss matters with members all over the province in our Forum.Citizens for Educational Choice supports fundamental choice in the provinces educational system and opposes the Liberal government’s intention to remove it.
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