As it is with all schooling options some students do well and others don’t. It looks like your friends didn’t do that good, but my guess is that it’s not because they were in FI that they didn’t do well.
My grade 4 daughter who is in French immersion just brought home a perfect report card: four As and a B in PE. She just started to have English Language Arts in grade 4 and does it with excellence. Believe me we are just doing what any parent should do to help their kids in school. Read to them, in English, when they are small and have them read to you, in French or English when they are able to. That was one of the amazing moments for me when my daughter started to read in English although nobody ever taught her to.
Make sure they get their homework done and expect them to take on more responsibility about their homework when they are able to.
As for Westview possibly closing. It is upsetting for the kids, more so then for the parents. It is not the end of French immersion as the program as a whole will most likely be moved to a more central location like Lax Kxeen or Roosevelt School. This makes good sense and improves accessibility to the program.
Oh, I don’t doubt this for a second! There are plenty of people who come out of the English system and cannot spell or use proper grammar! Some people just don’t pick up language as well as others. In my case, I have the skills and motivation to teach my kids how to speak and write English well, so I’m not worried about them falling behind in that way.
maybe i just dont understand the whole french immersion thing…
considering we live in an english society…
i think the french i got in highschool was just fine
although i would have liked to learn how to speak it more… theres an emphasis on writing it in highschool rather than speaking it
Well, my thing is that I’d like my children to learn two languages. Once you know a second language, it’s much easier to learn more (or so I’ve been told). Knowing more than one language opens up a lot of “worldly” opportunities.
And really, plain English schools are just too easy! The curriculum is too easy anyway. It’s the dealing with all the other students that’s the hard part! I know a lot of new teachers and have friends who are about to graduate from teaching programmes, and most of them will tell you that they learn more about managing a classroom than about the actual content they will be teaching.
My opinion is that most children who are in French Immersion have parents who are involved a bit more than the average parent of a kid who is in regular English school. This of course, is just an opinion, not backed by fact. (Just some examples)
So if you’re a parent of a FI child you are by definition a better parent? How can you lump all other parents into the “parents-who-don’t-care” category. That mind-set, attitude seems rather narrow and elitist to me. As a parent of two children who are not in FI I find your comments mildly offensive.
The reason why I put the “average” in asterisks is just to say that: AVERAGE. I’m sure you know as well as I do that there are plenty of involved parents who have kids in English schools. You’ve probably also noticed a lot of kids who have parents who just don’t give a dang. What I’m saying is that you’re going to find that more of the parents who put their kids in FI are doing so because they give a dang. You’re not going to find a whole bunch of parents who don’t care at all sticking their kids in FI. I mean, why would they?
I’m not excluding caring parents from English schools, I’m excluding non-caring parents from FI schools. This of course, is just a HUGE generalization, and with all generalizations, there’s always errors!
There is not, in any way, any offense meant! Cheers!
Oh, ITA that French, in particular isn’t the best language to learn. But it’s one that is available! If there were other, equal options, then I would encourage them. French isn’t widely used, as you say, but learning ANY second language will expand your knowledge and work your brain in ways it wouldn’t be worked otherwise. And really, once you’ve mastered two languages, learning a third is much easier. And Spanish and French are so close that once you’ve mastered one, you could pick up the other one so fast. (Similar roots-“romance” languages.)
Oh, and BTW, where I currently live, there’s a large pocket of French speaking people. I seem to be surrounded by them! ha ha. If we were to stay here (which we’re not-we’re moving up there) my children would be exposed to many French speaking people. Currently several of their play mates’ parents speak French to the kids.
