Too good to languish in the comments

Eric just posted the following comment in response to the previous post on humour:

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Kelly Lamrock: Because the chickens on this side of the road were causing streaming which hurt our test scores! For this reason, we are eliminating chickens and will provide each child with an egg in grade 6 from which some might produce their own chickens. Children who do not opt for the egg will receive chicken manure.

Donald Arseneault: The chicken had to cross the road so we could establish a Uranium mine on the chicken’s property.

Kelly Lamrock: People who oppose the chicken crossing the road are missing the hidden X factor! You often have to cross roads in fantasy football.

Victor Boudreau: Because the other side is not paying its fair share of taxes! The Liberals will increase the taxes on both sides as well as introducing a road crossing fee.

Kelly Lamrock: Following a court ordered consultation, I have decided to compromise and just make the chicken cross halfway. We’ll just hope that no cars come by.

Mike Murphy: Because it is more efficient to have separate systems! We’ll have chickens on that side and ducks on this side.

Shawn Graham: What did Kelly say?

You know what’s really

Liberal caucus, learning to carry a tune

getting on my wick? All these apologists who think that whatever disasters the Liberals propagate, they should be forgiven as long as they appear “contrite” and “rueful”, as long as they “learn.” Of course, Graham and Lamrock set the tone themselves and their supporters are only too happy to take the hint. This from the government that wants to give merit raises to government bureaucrats. That wants performance-based contracts. That wants to “measure outcomes” and impose repercussions for anyone who doesn’t “produce”. And we are supposed to wryly shake our heads after each cock-up and say indulgently, “Well, I bet they won’t do that again! Kids, eh? But did you see how abashed they looked? How cute is that? Look at Shawnie with his hands in his pockets, and little Kelly, shuffling his feet.” The ever-consistent Marcelle Mersereau writes, “The Graham government has survived its first serious crisis. There have been lessons learned from this exercise that will not be quickly forgotten.” Not very reassuring from someone who herself seems to have forgotten the serious crisis of last fall, for starters.

Me? I say, “spare the rod.”

[Cross-posted to Living in interesting times.]

It’s … Alive??

CEC Press release sent out June 19:

Parents Demand Improved Engagement Process for FSL Program Changes

Saint John (New Brunswick) – Thursday June 19, 2008 – In light of Wednesday’s Ombudsman’s Report, parents in New Brunswick are calling on the government to improve its engagement process with parents and other concerned citizens and expand the timeframe for determining changes to French Second Language programs.

The report released by Ombudsman Bernard Richard was very clear in identifying the serious flaws in the process used by Education Minister Lamrock and his Deputy Minister Kershaw. It highlighted the fact that consultation was insufficient and that Commissioners Croll and Lee “acted unfairly to a good number of those who appeared before them”. Even more disturbingly, the Ombudsman uncovered clear evidence that the Department of Education was working on a plan to phase out Early French Immersion before the final report was even submitted. After the Minister received the report, he led the public to believe that he was considering, however briefly, public opinion. These revelations cast serious doubt on that fact. In keeping with these concerns, the Court of Queen’s Bench last week also ruled that “the decision of the Minister was unfair and unreasonable.”

The Minister has subsequently announced a six week consultation process via the internet, stating that a decision on the French Second Language curriculum in Anglophone schools will be announced on August 5th, four weeks before the 2008-09 school year starts. The Ombudsman has expressed grave concern with this schedule. Parents are also very concerned that this timeframe is unrealistic and will not allow schools to prepare in time for the beginning of the school year.

“We have no faith in the six week process outlined by the Minister, given his conduct as revealed by the Ombudsman’s investigation,” said Bruce Robertson, a parent involved in pushing for change. “What’s more, implementing massive change four weeks from August 5th is completely unrealistic and demonstrates that the government is not serious about listening to new ideas or implementing the best French Second Language system for New Brunswick.”

“We’re calling on the government to put together a committee of experts to review the issues and set a realistic timeframe for implementation,” said Paula Small, one of the parents who submitted an affidavit to the court case. “To retain any credibility on this issue and offer the best chance of meaningful improvement, the government must take the time to review the system properly.”

In order to do this, parents are asking the government to respect the Ombudsman’s recommendations and the court ruling, and support schools in reinstating Early French Immersion for Fall this year. They’re also asking the government to go one step further, and, again following the Ombudsman’s recommendation, reinstate Core French and delay implementing any changes to FSL programming until 2009-10. Parents are not advocating for the status quo, but rather want to ensure that the changes made are the correct ones based on the best available information. Given that the discredited Croll and Lee report did not provide this information, it is imperative that the government takes the appropriate time to gather it.

“At this point in the year, the government needs to promote certainty and stability in the education system,” said Tim Jackson, another parent involved in pushing for change. “Let schools plan with certainty now for the 2008-09 school year and conduct a genuine engagement process which involves experts on inclusion, literacy and FSL. Then decide what an appropriate timeframe for implementation might be.”

For more information on the engagement process the group is asking the government to follow, please see the attached backgrounder.

For more information, please contact:
Bruce Robertson

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.