Okay, now I’ve really heard it all.
I got a notice home from my younger daughter’s school asking me to indicate if I were in favour of continuing to offer French as a Second Language to students in grade four (her school is K-4). Ummm…what? I was under the impression French language instruction was mandatory beginning in grade four: French is, after all, one of Canada’s official languages, n’est-ce pas?
But seriously – here’s a direct quote from the CBC news story about the Calgary Board of Education’s decision:
Calgary’s public school board said on Tuesday that second language classes will no longer be mandatory for students in Grades 4 through 9, starting in the next school year.
Quoi???
I mean, seriously? They’re actually getting rid of second language classes for students in grades 4-9. My head is reeling. The board’s position is that they will continue to offer second language classes to students in grades 4 to 9, but which language it will be now becomes the choice of the child and parents. So this is how the reasoning goes: maybe some families would prefer their child have instruction in Spanish, Mandarin or Arabic (those are the three main languages that are bandied about in the media). To which I am in no way opposed. I myself studied German in my public high school, an experience which I greatly treasured. It led to me spending a summer in Germany and it’s a language that I can still speak to this day. So…yes. Choice in additional language instruction is a good thing.
But not making French the first choice? That is NOT a good thing.
Look.The simple fact is this: Canada is a bilingual country and our two official languages are English and French. So it behoves us all to teach our children at least the fundamentals in each other’s languages. Let me put it to you this way: how would Albertans feel if we heard a news story that Quebec’s largest school board was going to make instruction in English as a Second Language an aption and that children and their parents could choose instruction in Arabic or Mandarin to supplement their core French-language instruction instead of English.
Yeah. I thought so.
I am a French Immersion teacher as well as an FSL teacher at a junior high in Alberta. I agree that the Core French program stinks and needs to be fixed. I have taught it now for 3 years. The problem is the supposed curriculum that we have to go from. Alberta Learning put out these FSL kits 12 years ago and they are pretty much useless. Students learning French need opportunities to listen and communicate before writing and reading. That is how we learn our first language. The resources that we have available focus more on reading and writing instead of communication. In my school, French is now a mandatory class and they only get it for 40 minutes every second day which is not enough time to learn a language. If anything it needs to be 40 minutes everyday.
It’s Alberta. Say no more. And after Tuesday’s results = NOT SURPRISED. And quote of the day goes to Tracey. …”That.Is.Ass”. Sums it up perfectly. Disgusting. 🙁
Having grown up in B.C. where French is taught as a second language from grade 4-9, I was quite shocked in January this year when we bought a house and moved to a smaller Alberta town, and there is no french taught.
We were living in Edmonton where my Metis daughters (through their father) were in a French Immersion school. We bought a house a moved to Wetaskiwin where there is a FI school but due to circumstances we were not able to enroll our girls there. So off to our zoned english school, only to find out that there is not core french taught at all. The school is K-6 but there is no french.
My girls are already losing what french they had and every day I question whether I made the right choice or not. A second language is beneficial in so many ways, and we all know that starting at a younger age is the best time to start.
I can see where the Calgary school board is making this decission considering that Canada is more and more a diversified culture but how can the smaller centers keep up with the bigger cities in Alberta. Already we struggle to have the basics, and as I’ve discovered sometimes they don’t even keep up with that. It has not been stated whether the Calgary School Board will still make a second language mandatory for the grades 4-9. If they are only changing the rules to implement the availability for options for a second language fine but if they are completly removing the second language instruction (only offered as an elective) they we are going to be in trouble.
I heard a CBC interview with a member of the Calgary Board of Education about this decision. Justification was for more choices and more flexibility for students, in keeping with the CBE’s long-term strategic plan. If second language instruction is no longer mandatory in elementary schools (4-6), it won’t exist – schools simply cannot afford/are not willing to spend their limited budget on non-mandatory courses. It seems to me we won’t have a choice.
Hmmm. This is interesting. Yes we are a bilingual country. How many people are actually bilingual? Core French is a problem in Ontario. Kids take it for years and many can barely string a sentence together by the end of grade 9, when it no longer becomes mandatory. Many kids hate it and they hate the French teachers. I know the French teachers of core French feel ignored in our board. French Immersion is different, the kids do learn French, Quebecois/Northern Ontario French in our board, but it does create an elitist system within out school.
I think that core French needs to be fixed.
Is there a rationale for this decision? Is it disengagement of the students?
I don’t think it’s that black & white an issue really. But then, I support unschooling and way more open public schooling because I think that children should have a lot of choice to follow their passion. I’m not conventional that way.
Aileen, I’m sure the other languages would be taught by certified teachers (they’d have to be, by law). As for the scheduling – it would be a decision made on a school-by-school basis. So: some schools would offer only Mandarin as their second language, while some would offer only Arabic, some would offer Ukranian while others would retain French language instruction.
Ironically, Alberta has the highest rate of French Immersion registration per capita of any province in Alberta. So the demand for French language instruction is huge.
It’ll definitely be interesting to see how this plays out.
Also, by whom do they plan to have these other optional languages taught? And how do they plan on scheduling it if every kid in the class can pick a different language? For crying out loud.
That. Is. Ass.
What the?! That is crazy. Unless and until the Canadian government decides that French is no longer an official language of this country it should be required. And that is that.