Did you know?

More to the point, one wonders if Shawn Graham knows that

• about 44% of children in Fredericton are in French Immersion from Gr 1 to 8.
• just over 50% of children in the Greater Moncton area are in French Immersion from Gr 1 to 8.
• about 50% of children in Sackville are in French Immersion from Gr 1 to 8.
• Provincially, where EFI is available, enrolment is 40.45%.
• The following percentages represent EFI enrolment in grades 1-5:
  • Grand Falls — 62%
  • Shediac Cape — 60%
  • Sackville — 50%
  • Riverview — 50%
  • Campellton — 49%
  • Moncton — 48%
  • Salisbury — 45%
  • Fredericton — 41%
  • Bathurst — 38%
  • Kennebecasis Valley — 37%
  • Hampton — 33%
  • Dalhousie — 32%
  • Oromocto — 30%
  • St George — 30%

Hardly the 20% statistic shopped around by the Minister. Perhaps he forgot to subtract Kindergarteners from his stats, as they are all listed under “English”. Oops.

These numbers reflect a significant voting block, one would think …

A faithful reader

posted this in the comments, but it is worth reproducing here:

From “The Sleuth,” Times&Transcript:

In political gossip, Sleuth’s spies inside the Liberal Party of New Brunswick report that there was a meeting in Moncton earlier this week of behind the scenes members, such as riding presidents and fundraisers, as well as the party’s president and executive-director.

And what was one of the hottest topics du jour? French Immersion!

Sleuth’s informant indicates the heat is on “high” in the kitchen, and although nobody has been seen vacating it yet, the grassroots are mightily worried about Premier Shawn Graham’s refusal to date to abandon or alter Education Minister Kelly (I’ve got a Report) Lamrock’s changes to second language training.

While the premier and education minister are still insisting there is a large “silent majority” among the public that supports the controversial changes, the grassroots members apparently aren’t so sure. Of 10 party supporters from Moncton at this week’s meeting, your gumshoe hears, only three support staying the course.Seven want changes.

And at least one Liberal backroom person told Sleuth, in worried tones, that this battle “isn’t partisan”. In fact, he noted, it is both small- and large-L liberals who are most against the government’s plan. Could be a very hot summer on the barbeque circuit for Shawn.

No kidding.

N.B. child invited for tea

For the literarily minded

[Click on image for poem]

Continuing the politics-as-extreme-sport theme:

So

in Marty Klinkenberg’s most recent must-read article, ex-deputy minister Robert Pichette is quoted as saying that this Liberal government is “amateurish,” “like nuns at a picnic.” Now I hadn’t heard that one before, but hey, I can work with almost anything:

Premier channels Tricky Dicky

[Original post]

Emotion

A recent article in the Gleaner has the following paragraph:

“On some of the issues emotion is very important,” said Graham. “But pertaining to education today, I feel emotion has clouded the real reason on why we are bringing forward an improved education system now that is going to provide bilingual opportunities for every student in the province.”

Reason versus emotion. This is what we eggheads call a “false dichotomy”: the two things are not necessarily opposed. Of course, when the Premier says “the real reason on why we are bringing forward an improved education system,” he is almost certainly not referring to reason in the abstract: thinking; rationality; reasonableness. No, he means “motive,” which in this particular case is the opposite of reasonable.

That aside, one wonders what these “some of the issues” on which “emotion is very important” actually are, if not our children? How about: being cheated? May we get emotional about that? Or about not being listened to? Not being properly represented? Being lied to, and insulted, and treated with disrespect, and manipulated?

Are any of these things about which it is permissible to be emotional?

Shawn Graham knows something that we don’t.

In a recent newspaper article he is quoted as saying, echoing Richard Nixon, “There is a silent majority of New Brunswick parents who want a quality bilingual education for their children that is not being afforded.” The article begins, “A noisy, emotional minority won’t stop changes to New Brunswick’s education system, vows Premier Shawn Graham.”

He is being surprisingly clever here. Notice the deft way he attempts to isolate parents who want early French immersion from other parents. He must be gleeful that they are getting all the attention; he no doubt hopes that his government can slip mandatory French into grade five and no-one will notice until it is too late.

But I think he will find, in the coming days and weeks, that we are not so divided after all.

Letter to the Premier

for “Write the Premier Week” (Facebook):

Here is

a letter I sent to the paper last night:

The elimination of early immersion is perhaps the most dramatic of Minister Kelly Lamrock’s proposed changes to education in N.B., but make no mistake: the Minister’s plan would affect all children in public schools in this province, not just those denied early immersion. Six months from now, all students currently in grade four Core French, regardless of their individual circumstances, interests, or challenges, would be compelled to take Intensive French for half the year in grade five. Afterwards, students would make the one and only choice that would be offered to them throughout their whole K–12 experience: do they want to go into late immersion, or continue with the new post-Intensive French programme? This decision would be binding, unlike now.

The Minister has taken to characterizing his opponents as “elitist.” Even if he were correct — and he is not as the “streaming” he cites is the result of chronic underfunding, not immersion — children denied early immersion would not be the only ones affected by this plan. ALL New Brunswick children would be affected. The ones currently in early immersion would not be “safe”: they would stumble through a diminished and dying programme. Many qualified teachers would leave the province, and who would then teach the new intensive programme? Students with challenges would be without resources. Since Intensive French focuses on language use, not content, students would only cover half the curriculum usually covered in grade five. When would they catch up? And the “streaming” that suddenly concerns the Minister would still continue in grade six, unchanged.

ALL New Brunswick children would be affected by this rushed, cobbled-together plan. They would ALL bear the brunt of a system-wide upheaval. And so ALL of us must call on Premier Graham to listen to the Ombudsman and postpone the Minister’s plan for at least a year. Maybe Minister Lamrock does know better than everyone else; he seems to think so. But are we willing to risk the education of our children? ALL our children?

Surely the answer, from ALL of us, has to be NO.

Where’s Shawn?

Where’s Shawn?

[image source]

News flash: Kelly Lamrock is Acting Premier; Shawn Graham on extended vacation

I mean, how else can one explain the following form email from the Premier’s office? It sounds like it’s directly from Minister Lamrock’s crib notes of a few weeks ago:

Thank you for your email concerning French Second Language Programs.

The decision to change the way French Second Language (FSL) programs are being delivered in this province was a difficult one. It was premised on the need to make two things happen. First, we want to ensure all students have the opportunity to gain proficiency in French. Second, we want to ensure New Brunswick students’ achievement in literacy, mathematics and science is on par with other Canadian students. Our students consistently score lower than those of all other provinces on PISA, (Programme for International Student Assessment). Given this, and the fact that only 34% of our anglophone students reach the provincial target for French proficiency, there was no option but to undertake a major reform. To ignore this situation would be unconscionable.

After careful consideration, the Department of Education has decided to move to a more comprehensive approach whereby all students will receive seven years of instruction in a quality second language program.

This will be achieved through the Intensive French (IF) program provided in grade 5 whereby all students receive an initial, intensive exposure to French, followed by parents and students having the choice in grade 6 of either the Post Intensive program or Late French Immersion.

There are several advantages of initial exposure to French in grade 5. By that grade, students will have a firm foundation in English literacy skills and will also have acquired the building blocks of numeracy in their first language. First language mastery provides a solid foundation for learning subsequent languages. An additional benefit of freeing a thirty-minute period daily in grades 1 through 4 will be the chance to offer students art, music, increased literacy, physical education and enrichment opportunities. Finally, mastery of basic French through IF in grade 5 will help students and parents to make informed decisions concerning the French program option that will best meet their needs in grade 6.

The announced reform will result in more students achieving better results, not only in second language learning, but in literacy and mathematics and other subjects.

Further information regarding French Second Language Programs and a complete list of improvements may be found at http://www.gnb.ca/0000/eng-cu-e.asp.

Thank you for taking the time to express your views on this important subject.

Sincerely,
Shawn Graham

Go below the fold for excellent responses from Sarah Touchie, Sarah Ingalls, and Paula & Raymond Small:

Happy April 1st