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19 comment(s)

As the parent of a bright, fluently bilingual (English/Spanish) core program student, I am extremely pleased with the elimination of the early immersion program. I, like many other core French parents, have been extremely frustrated that the education of the majority of students is so severely compromised by the early immersion program. Not only do students in the core program have no opportunity to learn French, but their learning in all subjects is negatively impacted due to large class sizes and classroom composition that are a direct result of the streaming that exists due to the early immersion program. I think if Parents for French were really about bilingualism, then they would get behind the change that would give all students the opportunity to learn French.

Parents for French are fond of calling the early immersion program the "Cadillac" of French programs. I am not going to argue with that. However, I will point out that the problem with Cadillacs is that only a small minority of society can ever afford to own one. And, until money starts growing on trees, there is simply no room for a minority of students to be driving Cadillacs in the public education system when they come at the expensive of the quality of education for the vast majority of other students. Education Minister Kelly Lamrock has leveled the playing field for all students and I admire him for having the courage to do so.

VALERIE KILFOIL

Fredericton

Student concerned for teachers' jobs

Usually we sit together as a family to watch the evening news. This week the news was really upsetting for our son who is an immersion student.

While he has known for many years we have been battling to keep immersion he was very surprised to learn that the minister has taken it away. His first concern was for his teachers.

We have always taught our son to stand up for what he believes is right so when he said he we should do something we both agreed to write this letter. Many parents I'm sure will agree that as parents and teachers we learn about each other's families and become friends. My son and I felt it is our duty to voice what I'm sure many teachers are not allowed to say. With the decision Kelly Lamrock has made my son would like to know how many of our French immersion teachers will lose their jobs and where will the teachers that he has come to know like family go when there is no French for them to teach?

In the last few days it has come to light that the report Mr. Lamrock based his decision on was not an accurate review. Having had many years in arguing to keep immersion and having met with Mr. Lamrock last year, it was no surprise that he eliminated early immersion. As parents we cannot accept the loss of our immersion programs and teachers.

LILA and BRAD JOHNSON

Penobsquis

We can help make world's water better

What if there was an easy and efficient plan to make the lives of billions on our planet better? And what if that plan was inexpensive and paid huge dividends for each dollar invested?

Hallelujah! Such a plan has just been hatched and largely through Canadian impetus and input.

The Global Sanitation Fund was formed last October and has the potential to bring sanitation technology and education to many of the 2.6 billion on our planet lacking these lifesaving services.

The Dutch recently gave a generous $45 million to the Global Fund. CIDA, our Canadian International Development Agency, has been conspicuous by its absence. World Water Day today would be a fine time to step up to the plate.

Dr. ROBERT C. DICKSON

Calgary, AB

Grade 5 students will be 'sitting ducks'

The records will indicate that for the most part, young students enrolled in the optional early French immersion program took to the program "like ducks to water." The only pressure these students feel is the pressure they place on themselves to receive a pretty sticker.

However the Grade 5 students who will soon be participating in the compulsory core program in the French language will be more like "sitting ducks."

First of all, Grade 5 students are usually 10 or 11 years of age. At this age most kids are self-conscious about changes in their appearance as well as the need to excel in front of their peers in order not to appear stupid or silly. Teachers can relate to the stress some students this age experience in simply reading a paragraph aloud and the need to spend more one-on-one time with even the more successful students.

Submerging the optional early French immersion program is such a cold and calculating act even in the face of the statistical information that has been calculated. It would appear that the government's interest in "self-sufficiency" regarding the plan to introduce the compulsory core French program at the Grade 5 level, is: "We are here to teach a program, teachers and students beware."

MARY RYAN

Fredericton

Closed meetings doing great harm

Saint John Hydro needed a new operations centre. It is nearing completion.

Saint John Transit needed a new operations centre. They went door to door in the neighbourhood, held a genuine public meeting. From all reports they are being welcomed as a good neighbour.

Saint John Police need an operation centre. Someone lost sight of the original goal and took a wide turn into the forest of urban renewal. Saint John has very good reasons to be alarmed by urban renewal. We see the scars of 1960s daily.

It is not that some people are against everything. Two out of three projects are un-opposed.

It is about closed meetings and the great harm they keep doing. On that front, nothing has changed in 30 years. We add new councillors every four years without expected results. Maybe we need to change several senior staff to break out of this never ending battle for open and transparent city hall.

HAZEL BRAITHWAITE

Saint John

Choice that suits kids taken away

I have to voice my thoughts on what is happening to our education system right now.

Minister of Education, Kelly Lamrock ignored the Rehorick Report from UNB and spent your money and mine on this government report with a panel of two people. Was this a research report or an action plan?

To make an abrupt, drastic change to our education system based on a report with results that are so far from every other report out there is extreme.

Just imagine if Mr. Lamrock's study factored in a student fresh out of Grade 9 who had nine full years of French. I wonder how they would test compared to three years later? Many students switch over to English courses in grades 10, 11, and 12 so that they can prepare for university. Does that mean their first nine years have been wasted or substandard? Of course not. It means their French skills would be a bit rusty on a test done in Grade 12.

All provinces except N.B. now offer early immersion. This panel of two must know something the rest of Canada doesn't. Maybe they didn't have time to review the other reports out there.

My right to make a choice that best suits my children has been taken away without a fair voice. This is such a sad period for N.B. Learning a second language at a young age opens more than just doors and opportunities - it opens their minds. What a loss for our children.

TRACEY ELLIOTT

Rothesay

Site ignores effects of water on climate

Prof. Rod Hill wrote obliquely that I stated that "climate change is fiction" March 17). Anyone remotely familiar with the topic knows that the world began warming around 1850. Warming that ended several miserable centuries of the Little Ice Age. Warming that was completely unrelated to the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, unchanged for centuries. A natural cycle.

Prof. Hill has a busy life and will not have had time to study the science of climate. I have two to four hours a day. And what I have learned about the IPCC is not a pretty picture. The IPCC is a house of cards. Its reports are biased to promote the idea that global warming (all of 0.6°C since 1850!) is the fault of man's CO2 emissions.

The IPCC ignores the vastly more important role that water plays. CO2 and water absorb much the same radiation, and there is up to 100 times as much water in the atmosphere.

Furthermore, water plays a vital role in distributing heat around the world, and conveys up to half the sun's heat back out to space. This is something that one will never read in an IPCC report.

IAN L. McQUEEN

Glenwood

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