excellent, excellent commentary in the T-J, “The other side on education.” Very useful for countering Lamrock’s misinformation.
a quick question: if in the last two years over 70% of enrollments in French immersion were in early French immersion, how on earth does Kelly Lamrock think only offering late immersion is going to get more students learning French? Does he expect that whole 70+% to take late immersion? Anyone with an adolescent can tell him it is a lot easier to convince a six-year of something, than an eleven-year old.
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.
Doug Willms has essentially distanced himself from the Lamrock plan. Very noble, too, given that his company stands to benefit substantially from contracts with the Dept. of Education. But how else to interpret this article, in which we are told,
The province’s decision to scrap early immersion and institute a universal French program beginning in Grade 5 is a step in the right direction, says education expert Doug Willms - but he would go even further….
He’d also start the program in Grade 4 instead of 5 and incorporate elements of French instruction in kindergarten and Grades 1-3, acknowledging that as with all subjects, the earlier a student begins learning, the better….
At this point, he said, it’s tough to judge the impact the new program will have on achievement rates.
“Is it the right plan?
“I don’t know,” Willms said.
“Certainly the plan we’ve got now isn’t working.”
Taken alone, he added, the elimination of early immersion will not solve the problem of New Brunswick’s high illiteracy rates and poor performance on international testing….
“It’s really fundamental in this system that the resources are in place so that we reduce the number of children who end up being struggling readers,” he said. “The move to universal immersion has to go hand-in-hand with more resources in Grades kindergarten through 3.”
So when the Lamrock plan crashes and burns, Willms, at least, is already on record. Oops, and just when the T-J ties their wagon to Lamrock.
Update (Apr 29/08): download a PDF of Willms’ The Case for Universal French Instruction.
Monique Bournot-Trites and Ulrike Tellowitz, Report of Current Research on the Effects of Second Language Learning on First Language Literacy Skills, commissioned by the Atlantic Provinces Educational Foundation, 2002 (download PDF).
and read Diana Hamilton and Matt Litvak’s excellent commentary, “Flawed report, flawed conclusion,” published this morning in the T-J.
package of documents being distributed by Citizens for Educational Choice:
Useful to give to anyone who wants (or needs) to learn about the issue.
yesterday by Katie Tower in The Sackville Tribune Post: “Local parents continue decades-old fight to save immersion program: Tea with Hatfield resulted in policy change for greater access to FI.” Tower describes the battle in 1980 and compares it with the situation today:
In fact, [Amanda] Cockshutt says she believes the campaign is just gaining momentum. Because just as it was 28 years ago, parents don’t take their children’s future lightly.
“Whenever it’s about kids and their education, people just don’t drop it,” says Cockshutt.
Hear hear.
[Rob Hoadley passed on the following:]
From former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson’s remarks when arriving in Fredericton, Oct 10, 2000:
Not only do you have francophone and anglophone education based on history, but you also have the most successful French-immersion program of any province in Canada. There are more children per capita in French-immersion schools here than in any other province. And as Governor General of the people of Canada, I want to congratulate you on this marvellous achievement. This is a standard to be emulated by the rest of Canada.
Reflecting on the death of Pierre Trudeau, which touched us all so profoundly, I am reminded that his dream of Canada is very much a reality here. New Brunswick is Canada’s only officially bilingual province, a place where the nation’s dual character is a living heritage, the warp and woof of the social fabric of communities, large and small.
have started a separate page to list the many critics of the Lamrock plan and/or the Croll/Lee report. In most cases there is a link to a news story or media release. Please let me know, in the comments or via email, of any I have missed.
Here is an article b
editorial in the Kings County Record. It begins:
By now Education Minister Kelly Lamrock should have learned a valuable political lesson. By this point, he should have discovered that you can mess with a lot of things and still survive to stand up in the Legislature another day.
By now he should have realized that you can mess with people’s roads, you can mess with people’s taxes, you can even mess with people’s jobs and still survive, but the thing that will bring them out fighting like cornered dogs, that one thing you cannot do is mess with people’s kids.
All I can add is, grrrr!
Kelly Lamrock’s reported comment that concern about FSL is confined to “yuppies” in Fredericton and Moncton, people in the Mirimichi seem interested, if the slew of articles in the Mirimichi Leader is any indication, including Patricia Lee wading in and the Minister’s multi-part series. See in particular Alison Ménard’s excellent open letter and Raissa Marks’ guest editorial which concludes, “I leave you with one more question, Mr. Premier. Are you prepared to lose the next election on this issue?”
right beside some of the Premier’s pronouncements on education, there is an ad from the fine folks at Sylvan.
Wonder if they do French?
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