Meeting in Fredericton

Monday June 23
7:30pm, Room 404, Tilley Hall, UNB

Purpose: 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.

CEL Meeting Postponed

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.

CEL Meeting in Saint John this Thursday

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.

Judicial Review

Message from the group requesting the judicial review:

VERY IMPORTANT: We need YOUR presence!!!

Where: 110 Charlotte Street, Saint John Provincial Court, Saint John
When: 12:30pm, Wednesday June 11th

Why: Judge McClellan will deliver his verdict on the Judicial Review of the Elimination of Early French Immersion. Media will be there in droves and will be reporting on how many parents show up to hear the verdict. We can send a STRONG message by being there – to respectfully hear the verdict – in large numbers. We need people on the sidewalk, in the streets, and standing room only in the court gallery.

Even if the judge doesn’t find that the law allows him to force the government to reverse the elimination of EFI, he may rule that the consultation process was flawed. In this case, we can point this out to media and deliver a strong message that we want the government to respect the judge’s comments and undertake a more fulsome consultation process.

We have worked hard to get to this point – it has cost a lot of time and money. Please make being there A PRIORITY.

Meeting in Moncton

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.

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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.

CEC meeting in Fredericton

IMPORTANT CEC MEETING
Wednesday, May 7 — 6pm
UNB Fredericton — Tilley Hall room 303

More info. to come; please mark your calendars for this night!

— Citizens for Educational Choice

Dr. Fred Genesee, “Early Childhood Bilingualism: Perils and Possibilities”

Message from Jane Keith, Executive Director, Canadian Parents for French:

On May 14, 2008, Dr. Fred Genesee will be giving a free, public talk in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The title of his lecture is “Early childhood bilingualism: Perils and possibilities”. We believe this presentation will appeal to anyone interested in issues pertaining to bilingualism in education, second language learners, immersion, and the challenges associated with accommodating the varied needs of learners from varied cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Dr. Genesee is a world-renowned scholar of bilingualism, language development and language immersion programs, a Professor of Psychology at McGill University and the author of numerous scientific research books and reports on language learning in children.

We would be grateful for your assistance in circulating this message to your members, colleagues, and staff who might benefit from attending this event. Teachers, in particular, might be able to count this event toward mandated professional development requirements.

May 14, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. (in English)
Wu Conference Centre, UNB Fredericton
Kent Auditorium, 6 Duffie Drive, Fredericton, NB, E3B 5A3

Local Contact Info – Jane Keith, Executive Director
Tel.: 506.432.6584

For additional information on Dr. Genesee’s talk, please visit the Minerva Lecture Series page on the Canadian Council on Learning’s website.

Update (May 26/08): Here is the podcast of Dr. Genesee’s talk.

Saint John and area CEC meeting

on Tuesday April 29/08 at 6:30–8:00 pm. at Lancaster Baptist Church, 87 Church Ave. W., Saint John.

Communique

This is the first cross-provincial call-to-action from “Citizens for Education Choice”, a recently-formed umbrella group that supports fundamental choice in the province’s educational system and opposes the Liberal government’s intention to remove it. Some of us don’t want the EFI experience to be taken from NB’s children; others are sure that gr. 5 Intensive French is not right for their children. We include Francophones concerned about our culture, and immigrants who would like our children to learn a second language. All of us feel that the Liberals have turned their backs on the fundamental practices of civil society as they rush to implement Lamrock’s educational experiment.

Until now, we’ve fought Lamrock’s folly separately: our voices have been heard in letters, phone-ins and marches, but we haven’t coordinated our efforts; our ideas have been exchanged on blogs and comments, bu we haven’t worked together to understand the real issues involved. After a meeting in Sussex this weekend with leaders in this fight from all over the province, we planned to ‘connect the dots’ between our local efforts. This will consist in a number of efforts happening at the same time with coordination from the CEC Council. Of course, CEC-organized efforts don’t have to be the only way we fight Lamrock’s changes — local and personal work matters greatly but we hope that together we can do even more.

Volunteers Needed

Do you have time to distribute documents, or writing skills, or researching, or PR skills? CEC can use these to work for choice, and we’re asking everyone to make small, coordinated efforts in writing editors, contacting politicians, etc.

For instance, will someone come forward to be the one who reminds people when it’s their turn to speak up in the editorials? Who will coordinate efforts to have letters sent in French to the Francophone media?

We also need people to look through the media sources, Hansard, etc. to keep us informed with a daily summary, if possible.

We need to visit local MLAs, Liberal Riding Associations and make sure that the message gets out at PSSCs and that we communicate with parents at daycares.

If you would like to volunteer to do these things, please write Shannon at educational.choice@gmail.com

Issues that Need Study

Are you a research or a writer? We need people to investigate some of the following issues:

• Expose the injustice of the ‘Council of DEC Chairs’ making pronouncements on this issue
• Research the failures of consultation leading up to Croll/Lee, including: That teachers in AEFNB were not formally consulted, while English-speaking persons were
• That the consultative process was inappropriate for the drastic action taken
• The effect of this on rural areas
• The nature of the proposed ‘immersion’ experience, which omits Science and Math What will a typical schedule look like?
• Will the product of this system reach the goals of Lamrock?
• Means of engaging Francophones in this debate

If you would like to help look into one of these and, teachers, you don’t have to put your name to your work — please contact Shannon at educational.choice@gmail.com.

CEC Council going wil see to it that each of these issues is highlighted in a polished and well-timed press release.

Publications

We will soon have a grass-roots document package that can be used to explain the problems in daycares, PSSCs and elsewhere.

Together, let’s convince the government to return to educational choice.

Hampton meeting, April 24

Just heard of the following:

Choice in Education – Public Meeting
Do you want choice for your children’s education? Are you unhappy with the way the Liberal government is handling changes to the New Brunswick education system? Are you against the Liberal government eliminating ALL French programming from Grades 1 to 4? Did you sign a form to place your child in Early French Immersion in September 2008? Are you concerned about the now mandatory Intensive French program for Grade 5 students and wondering how it affects your children? If you answered yes to any of these questions then be sure to attend a public information meeting on Thursday April 24 in the Ossekeag Room of the Hampton Community Centre from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. If you have questions email Trudy at trudan@nbnet.nb.ca or Carmelle at marccarm@nb.sympatico.ca.

From the Fredericton demonstration:

From

Diana Hamilton and Matt Litvak’s blog:

Drs. Jimmy Borque and Rodrique Landry, directors of the Centre de recherche et de développement en éducation and de l’Institut canadien de recherche sur les minorités linguistiques, respectively, held a press conference on their evaluation of Minister Lamrock’s decision to terminate Early French Immersion in NB Anglophone schools. They concluded that the Croll and Lee report, the report that was the basis of Minister Lamrock’s decision, was severely flawed. They suggested that whatever the goal, the policy developed cannot be said to be research-based. They challenged the Minister to submit the report to a panel of experts for further review

Read all about it, en français, or listen to Radio Canada.

Rally in Dalhousie

PRESS RELEASE

A public rally regarding the undemocratic cancellation of the Early French Immersion Program by Liberal Education Minister Kelly Lamrock — and the Shawn Graham Government — will take place in Dalhousie New Brunswick on Thursday April 10th, 2008 at 12:30pm. The location of the rally is on Adelaide Street in front of the Best Western Manoir Adelaide. The Shawn Graham Government will be holding meetings at this location throughout the day.

The Citizens Committee for the Retention of Early French Immersion encourages all people — young or old, French or English – certainly bilingual — and any others that are opposed to the arrogant approach of this government’s Minister of Education on this issue to come out and have their voice heard.

The Committee understands that the Town of Dalhousie has very pressing issues to address with the Shawn Graham Government over the inaction regarding the economic and social situation of the town and the north of this Province. It regrets that it is compelled to stage this rally at this time. It appears that the Graham Government and its Education Minister, Lamrock, are just not getting the message. One example: The assistant to Speaker of the House Roy Boudreau — the local MLA for Campbellton Restigouche Center — stated to a committee member that the MLA’s office has “only received a few phone calls…so it doesn’t seem to be that big of an issue for the people of the area.” he stated. We assure the Office Assistant, Speaker Boudreau, Minister Lamrock and Premier Graham — it is a HUGE issue! We will communicate this to them at the rally on Thursday the 10th.

Please come out to support your democratic choice regarding the education of our children!

Anyone interested may contact the committee through Stacy Doiron — 506-789-0685.

[Facebook event: D-Day: Dalhouse Speaks Up for Early French Immersion. It's time to show Shawn Graham some good ol' fashioned North Shore hospitality!]

Meeting in Sackville

There will be a Sackville Citizens for EFI Meeting this evening, Wed. Apr 2, at the Civic Centre, from 7-9pm.

Meeting in Fredericton

There is a meeting tonight in Head Hall, UNB Fredericton, Room C24 (Faculty Lounge) from 7-9pm for those interested in organizing against the Lamrock proposals.