Sackville's 1980 early immersion victory
OTTAWA - Smart, articulate, angry parents wanting the best for their kids versus well-intentioned opponents whose heels are dug in: these two sides are battling over language education in a dispute that threatens to erode New Brunswick's national reputation.
The description fits the bitter controversy that has erupted since the Graham government decided two weeks ago to eliminate early French immersion.
But it also describes the decisive victory a handful of parents in Sackville won for early immersion in 1980.
Their goal was simply to force a reluctant local school board to create a second early immersion for their kids that September.
But their lobbying triumph - a policy change that expanded early immersion throughout the province - ended up changing New Brunswick education for a generation.
The Sackville parents' efforts led the government of then-premier Richard Hatfield to make it mandatory for school boards to offer early immersion to meet demand that had been rising for years.
"Early immersion took off like wildfire after that," said Matthew Hayday, a historian of language education policy at the University of Guelph.
His study of the Sackville immersion battle will soon be published in a book on social movements in Canada.
The themes of the Sackville saga are echoing today, said Hayday.
"You can draw parallels in terms of the people fighting to defend early immersion and the people who are opposed," he said.
In fact, some of the key players in Sackville's victory went on to assume leading roles in the pro-immersion Canadian Parents for French (CPF) group in New Brunswick and nationally.
Some of them, including Mt. Allison University sociologist Berkeley Fleming, made the trip Thursday from Sackville to Fredericton to join the protest on behalf of early immersion at the legislature.
The journey reprised one he and a few dozen Sackville parents made 28 years ago.
"We didn't take buses back then," he said. "There were a lot fewer of us."
(In 1980, some of the Sackville protesters were then invited in to meet Hatfield "and served tea from the silver tea service," Hayday wrote).
In 1980, early immersion had taken root in New Brunswick's English schools, but school boards were under no obligation to meet the demand.
It was common for teachers, school boards and opponents of bilingualism to argue adding more classes would rob unilingual English teachers of jobs or lead to unforeseen consequences.
Those were the kinds of objections the school board raised in Sackville when it was faced with twice as many applicants for early immersion as there were spaces.
The parents of the kids who were going to be left out - many of them well-educated people connected to Mt. Allison University - mounted a three-pronged effort aimed at the board, the provincial government and the federal government to overturn the board's decision.
That spring and summer, their tactics were largely conventional - letters to the editor, petitions, a protest in Fredericton - just as parents are now.
The big difference between then and now is the factors that made the Hatfield government sympathetic to their cause.
Some were political.
The Conservative candidate in Sackville's Tantramar riding had nearly been defeated by the NDP candidate in the previous election, for one.
Hatfield's Conservative government was interested in supporting the growth of bilingualism to keep voters' support and to generate a new generation of bilingual civil servants.
Hatfield also had to be consistent with the positions he took on the national stage. At the time, he was striving to have New Brunswick's status as an officially bilingual province, and protection for linguistic minorities, recognized in the Constitution.
"These factors made the provincial government the key 'crack' for the Canadian Parents for French to target" when its local efforts were frustrated, says Hayday's study.
Ottawa didn't intervene directly because education is a provincial responsibility, but at the time, Ottawa was ramping up funding for minority-language schooling, which made expansion of immersion more palatable.
Hayday - who deplores the decision to scrap early immersion - advises the parents fighting today to keep highlighting the research that proves its merits.
"There is a strong consensus about it," he said.
He also argues this issue won't blow over.
Rather, every September, another group of parents will be reminded of an option that once existed, that every other province still offers, that's been denied them. And every September, another group of former early immersion teachers will have to be shuffled to teach French in later grades in the system.
French teachers are highly coveted; Hayday predicts some will leave New Brunswick.
Fleming's long-ago fight to get his son and others in early immersion "had a real effect on my life.
"It was an object lesson that sometimes these efforts make a difference."
He became a leader in the CPF and saw New Brunswick "looked at as a leader across the country.
"With this change, we're going to be the last."
To the best of his recollection, about 15 of the 21 or 22 children who entered the extra immersion class in Sackville in 1980 stuck with immersion. His own son achieved advanced proficiency before graduating high school.
But he is not confident the pressure mounting on Education Minister Kelly Lamrock will change his mind.
"I've given up trying to persuade them they've misread the research," said Fleming. "It seems to have had no effect.
"In my view, pressure has to be put directly on the premier now."
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"But their lobbying triumph - a policy change that expanded early immersion throughout the province - ended up changing New Brunswick education for a generation"
27 years later and where is the education system in NB ranked ?, and you consider that a triumph how ?
The two commentors above are correct, we are the laughing stock of Canada , and it has nothing to do with the recent EFI decision and all to do with a poor province spending money they don't have on a system that simply doesnt work ! And what is probably earning us even more laughter is people actually screaming leave as it is !!..or even worse...spend more on it !! ?
I believe you are missing the point. We are offering criticism in order to express our discontent with the present situation. We actually want to better ourselves and the future for our children by increasing their standard of living.
As far as I am concerned, pride means " a deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one's own accomplishments". I certainly hope that the present state of our educational system ( as one of many failures) does not make you prideful.
This attitude is typical : Anyone who criticizes those entrusted with government programs are indicted as being devoid of pride. Especially, when they charge that any criticism of government programs means that you detest your own region, province or Country.
I must say that the reverse is true. Those who are intentionally unperceptive, shortsighted and blind are those who are devoid of pride, honour and self-respect.
You are wrong: I'm a Patriot!