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
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 5A3Local Contact Info - Jane Keith, Executive Director
Tel.: 506.432.6584For additional information on Dr. Genesee’s talk, please visit the Minerva Lecture Series page on the Canadian Council on Learning’s website.
on Tuesday April 29/08 at 6:30–8:00 pm. at Lancaster Baptist Church, 87 Church Ave. W., Saint John.
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.
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.
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.
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!]
There will be a Sackville Citizens for EFI Meeting this evening, Wed. Apr 2, at the Civic Centre, from 7-9pm.
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.
for the meeting tonight of Saint John Parents for Choice in Education at 6:30 in the Faculty/Staff Lounge in the Ward Chipman Library: detailed printable map PDF.
Tomorrow’s meeting in Saint John will take place at 6:30pm in the Faculty/Staff Lounge in the Ward Chipman Libary at UNBSJ (Facebook; campus map; detailed printable map PDF).
Wednesday April 2, there will be meetings in both Sackville and Fredericton (check Facebook, or back here, for details).
has just posted a video, Rally for Choice in Education, at CultureHub.
Perhaps fittingly, there will be a meeting this coming Tuesday, April 1 at 6:30pm, at UNB Saint John (room TBA). All who are concerned about the provincial government’s plans for elementary education are welcome to come and plan our next steps. Kids are welcome, though you might want to bring something to keep them occupied (the last meeting was in an elementary school library but we cannot offer such interesting stuff to look at!).
A Facebook event has been set up.
MOST disgusting thing today? Kelly Lamrock trying to play New Brunswickers off against each other by repeating, at every opportunity, that we, the lucky 20%, had had our run but now we have to share with the other 80%. Share what, exactly? EFI — all public school programmes in N.B. — are run on a shoestring.
Second most disgusting: his continual trotting out of his willingness to sacrifice his own daughter as proof of his impeccable integrity.
la maison
Recent Comments