on letters to the editor in today’s T-J:
I have decided that the Liberal Party is performing so poorly that we should cancel it and give the province a period of Intensive Tory starting in 2010.
There is no denying that the Liberal Party works well for a small number of golfers and business executives but it just doesn’t make sense to support a party that fails over 80% of the people.
excellent, excellent commentary in the T-J, “The other side on education.” Very useful for countering Lamrock’s misinformation.
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.
and read Diana Hamilton and Matt Litvak’s excellent commentary, “Flawed report, flawed conclusion,” published this morning in the T-J.
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.
continues unabated:
The Globe and Mail has an editorial today which begins
The speed with which small children can pick up a language is hardly disputable. Countless people on this planet observe it every day. Again and again, solid research has confirmed the phenomenon. Yet the government of the only province in Canada that has declared itself officially bilingual is acting in defiance of this gift of nature. This month, New Brunswick announced that it will wind down the French immersion program in the early grades of Anglophone schools.
And, an excellent commentary in the Times&Transcript by W.E. (Bill) Belliveau.
See the letters in the Telegraph-Journal and The Daily Gleaner.
And Robert Macleod in the T-J also asks, where’s Shawn?
But is the provincial government listening? No. And apparently, there is even more to come.
They need four family doctors in Fredericton alone? Hey, that’s how many said they were thinking of leaving over the loss of EFI here in SJ.
Here is an interesting news story: “Ottawa urged to put $1-billion into official languages” (Globe and Mail, March 20/08). Talk about being out of step!
In local news, four Saint John doctors are considering leaving the region because of the loss of early French immersion; this at a time when New Brunswick is crying for doctors. It does make you wonder if the different government ministers even talk to one-another.
And, on YouTube:
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