How Did We Get Here?

Some important things will be happening this week in our battle with the Department of education.  I’ll write more after they take place.  I borrowed this from an email from a friend.

Why we need to continue the fight.
 
            This fight is winnable however we need more participation. These changes are going to affect the vast majority of students. 
 
The English core students will starting in Sept/08 have NO French language instruction until Grade 5.
The Early French immersion students will have to suffer with a lot less resources. Not all programs within the EFI program have been grandfathered. District 18 have already announced the axing of their summer remedial reading program for French language even though there are still students enrolled in the EFI program. We can expect to hear of more such cuts.
The Early and Late immersion programs will have staffing problems over the next number of years as immersion teachers switch over to the francophone system and the teachers in the lower grades with more seniority began bumping the teachers in the higher grades as each year is fazed out.
Schools are finding it hard now to get French substitute teachers for Immersion students it will become more difficult as fewer new immersion teachers will be coming in the system.
The intensive French model that is being brought forward by Minister Lamrock is not being used as it was designed or is it the same as what was piloted within the school system. The creators of the intensive French model have come out against this decision.
The late French immersion program is now a watered down version of what is currently in place. There will be less instructional time in French as math and science will now be taught in English. With less instructional time in French we can expect lower proficiency scores as a result.
The intensive French program will be very similar to the LFI program as they will include French language arts plus one other subj. (social studies) be taught in French and will be mandatory until grade 12
If you want your child to graduate high school bilingual it will not happen under this new system. The goal of both programs is to attain an intermediate or at best an intermediate plus level. All of the experts in 2nd language instruction that we have talked to concur this goal is overly optimistic. Intermediate plus is considered a threshold level at which “bilingualism” is attainable.
With the changes made to Policy 309 there will be no firm obligation on the districts/schools to maintain any level of French instructional time within the classroom so even the “grandfathered” EFI is not SAFE as it may be watered down as they take teachers away from the immersion programs to teach intensive French

What you can do
Letters to the editor are very affective. They are read by the politicians and considered by political types as a good gauge of public sentiment. Letters must include your Name address telephone number and no more than 250 words in length and can be sent to ‘tjletters@telegraphjournal.com’
Letters to your MLA and other party officials especially riding associations. All this info can be found at http://www.nbliberal.ca ask questions that they have to answer in your letters. Ask for a confirmation of receipt
Contact the district  office ask questions on the new programs. Express your displeasure with the changes. There is not much they can do to change a ministerial decision but your displeasure will be sent up the line.
Try and get in for a face to face meeting with your MLA Mondays are constituency days. MLAS are in their local offices every Monday.  
Educate yourself know the facts. Do not just take my word and do not just take what the minister says for fact. Read the Croll Lee report www.gnb.ca/0000/publications/comm/FSL%20Report.pdf Read the analysis of and rebuttal of the Croll Lee report published by the CPF http://www.cpfnb.com/reports/BeyondHysteria.pdf
 

There are many other issues and publications in regard to these changes which would be far too many for me to list here. If you want more info there are a couple of good websites set up with plenty of links to reports etc… the local Saint John site is www.educationnb.org

It’s been a hectic week and a half and I really need a couple of days to catch up on life.

Last Monday I had a meeting for the Saint John Breastfeeding Alliance, yoga at suppertime and then a Home and School meeting.

Tuesday- playgroup at our Family resource Center and  Citizen’s for Educational Choice   What are we?  From our website-  http://www.educationnb.org

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 My son also had beavers Tuesday night instead of Wed.  and since we are a one vehicle family, conflicts in scheduling require some juggling.  They were going on a field trip at a local park so that meant hubby had to take the girls as well.  I also look after two little boys on Tuesdays so it was a very hectic day.

Thursday nights dh is out.  Friday night and Saturday I went to the provincial Home and School AGM.  I sat in on some amazing sessions about community schools,parenting the net generation and learning styles.  The presenter for the learning styles session was great.  He’s from PEI and here’s a link to the course he’s doing for the PEITF http://www.peitf.com/ideas.htm  I’d love to go to a full course.  The little bit that he presented to us on learning styles, was very insightful.

Oh and there was a special guest appearance at noon. Less-than -Honourable Mr Kelly Lamrock.  I had a hard time eating with him in the room.  It made me quite nauseous and I almost choked when he said that with his new plan, gifted students will have SEP’s.  This infuriates me so much .   Can you get more elite than that?   The current wait for a psycho-educational evaluation in this province is 1-2 yrs.  That’s for struggling students who may have learning disabilities.  And we’ve got room in the system for gifted students as well??

Honestly I think the man dreams up a new plan each night while he’s sleeping.  He should be writing them down though because he’s constantly contradicting himself.  he told a well spun tale of being on the basketball team in high school and almost cutting his fingers off in shop class.  I mentioned it to someone last night and they laughed.  Basketball??  More like theatre, debate and mock parliment.  New Brunswick needs to exile Doug Willms and Kelly Lamrock to a deserted island.

Anyway.  I took Sunday off  from meetings and Monday night went to PSSC and CEC again Tuesday night.  I think I am good until Sunday when I hope to attend the AGM for CPF.  Joe Dicks and the Official languages Commisioner will be speaking.

For now, I need to catch up on laundry, do a meal plan for the next few weeks, get some cleaning done and figure out what to do with the kids this weekend.  Two days off school again.  No offence to the teachers out there, but union meetings should not take place during school hours.  We’ve missed enough classtime as it is.

In more ways than one…

The other day on our way to playgroup, I saw this toilet on the sidewalk.  I had my camera with me and thought, Hmmm maybe this would make a good blog post about potty training in the city.  But Lydia has potty trained with ease and there really isn’t much to say about it.  Thinking more about this toilet on the sidewalk though, leads me to the political state of our city and province.  Municipal elections are next month.  Once again the prospects are not thrilling and I think it will be more of a process of elimination.  If the mayor is re-elected, we may just pack up and move.

As for provincial politics….that toilet is where I would like to shove the Liberal’s new plans for both education and health care.

Kelly Lamrock, minister of education, keeps refering to us as being elite and wealthy because our oldest is in french immersion.  Guess he hasn’t checked my bank account.  I keep looking but there aren’t any long lost funds popping up.

He’s also called us emotional.  He’d better watch out.  Emotions fuel fire.  The more he speaks, the more he adds to the fire and he will get burned.  If not now, at election time.

Maybe.  So last Thursday, hubby took a vacation day and we took the kids to Fredericton to the legislature.  We were there to protest the new education plan for New Brunswick.  Our Minister of Education has decided to eliminated the early immersion program (in the only bilingual province) and implement a new intensive french program in place of core french.  On the drive home we were discussing the day, wondering if our protest, this was our second, had made a difference.  We decided that it would be an injustice to our kids if we just sat back and did nothing.  What would that say to them?  So even if the protest didn’t accomplish anything politiaclaly, it would show the kids that we care about them. 

Today, the Telegraph Journal published this article.    http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/front/article/256396#

Grit turning against Grit in language battle

MEGAN O’TOOLE
TELEGRAPH JOURNAL

Published Wednesday April 2nd, 2008

Appeared on page A1

The Tantramar Liberal riding association in Sackville is joining a growing chorus calling for the province to re-examine its decision to axe early French immersion.

The association has passed a motion condemning the province’s move and asking Premier Shawn Graham and Education Minister Kelly Lamrock to reconsider.

The organization will be meeting with Lamrock to discuss the matter, possibly as early as next week, confirmed president Janet Fotheringham.

She was tight-lipped about what specific concerns would be brought to the table, but said the meeting would provide a good platform for discussion.

“In Tantramar we’re very strongly in favour of French immersion,” Fotheringham said Tuesday. “We certainly don’t like to see it go. If there’s a way out of (this decision), then we’d like to find it.”

The Tantramar association is not alone in its lack of support for the Liberal government’s changes to the French second language system.

Last week, Bob Bernier of Millbrook, near Sussex, resigned as president of the Kings East Liberal Association, saying the decision on early immersion drastically changed his view of the provincial government.

“I no longer want to be affiliated with a party which will go down in history as the party responsible for the demise of French immersion in the province,” Bernier wrote in a statement explaining his decision.

Conrad Pitre, president of the Nigadoo-Chaleur riding association in Beresford, also blasted the move to kill early immersion, calling it unfair.

“We’re certainly not satisfied with the decision that was made,” Pitre said. “We support total French immersion.”

Members of his riding association have broached these concerns with their local MLA, he added.

Since it was announced in the legislature last month, the elimination of early immersion has spurred protests across the province, and complaints have been pouring in to the Ombudsman’s office.

Lamrock has refused to back down on the controversial decision, maintaining the current system has been failing students and bogging down literacy rates.

Starting in September, all early French immersion programs in the province will be scrapped. Students will begin an intensive French program in Grade 5, with an option the following year to enter late immersion or post intensive French.

Those currently enrolled in early immersion and core French in Grades 1 through 4, however, will be able to continue in those programs under a grandfather clause.

April 1st, 2008
Wow things have changed a lot in the past month.
I have started listening to CBC radio, reading the news, getting involved in politics, protesting and writing letters.
I have to admit I have never had an interest in any of these things before but there are huge stakes on the line. The education of my children. This is actually keeping me up at night and consuming a good part of my thoughts and daily conversations. What are the issues? Just google New Brunswick, Kelly lamrock and early French Immersion.
I’ll explain more later but I’ve got to go relax before I hit the hay. If you can’t wait for an update, just check out http://educationinnb.wordpress.com/