Keep Early French Immersion in New Brunswick

12:03 pm PDT, May 21, Connie Culligan, Canada

8:19 am PDT, May 20, Blaine Legaree, Canada

9:20 am PDT, May 16, Dawn Levi, Canada

5:22 pm PDT, May 15, Darlene Wedge, Canada

2:18 pm PDT, May 15, Christine Doiron, Canada

7:40 am PDT, May 15, Michele Fabbroni, New Jersey

5:51 am PDT, May 15, Jennifer Doiron, Canada

5:11 am PDT, May 15, KELLY DELUCRY, Canada

3:48 am PDT, May 15, David Sturgeon, Canada

8:10 pm PDT, May 14, Juliet Manning, Canada
I will never understand the desire to eliminate Early French Immersion. It is not doing harm - you lack analysis behind your statistics.

8:00 pm PDT, May 14, Heather Comeau, Canada

6:08 pm PDT, May 14, Kelly Sherrard, Canada
I planned that my child would be attending French Immersion since she was conceived and now that choice and opportunity has been taken from our family. I come from a French Canadian background with a French maiden name, sadly the French language was lost from my family with my grandparents and was never passed on to my father and his siblings. I have wanted to restore this part of my heritage but have had difficulty doing so with the Core French Education background I have. I previously tested at an Intermediate Plus Prvoincial Competency in French but still find it difficult obtaining bilingual employment. I want my children to be better equipped than I am to find bilingual employment in this province.

9:45 am PDT, May 14, Name not displayed, Alabama

5:35 am PDT, May 13, Nicole Underhill, Canada

7:20 am PDT, May 12, Sean Duguay, Canada

6:50 am PDT, May 12, Keith Innis, Canada

10:35 pm PDT, May 11, Nicolle Barteaux, Canada
I was greatly disappointed to hear that New Brunswick is dropping their early French Immersion program. I might not live in N.B. and I might not speak French myself (although I wish I did), I always loved the fact that New Brunsick offered such a program and wish that Nova Scotia would follow suit. Why would you get rid of such a good thing? Children learn best at a young age, especially when it comes to languages. It'll only be harder to teach them as they get older.

4:18 pm PDT, May 11, Sharron Underhill, Canada

3:58 pm PDT, May 11, Sylvia Steward, Canada

12:04 pm PDT, May 11, Matthew Fudge, Canada

8:26 am PDT, May 11, Kim Pearson, Canada

2:41 pm PDT, May 9, Marc Aucoin, Canada

9:08 am PDT, May 9, Don LeBlanc, Canada

7:25 am PDT, May 9, Katherine Morley, Canada

6:49 am PDT, May 9, Natasha Hanson, Canada
As someone who was born and raised in New Brunswick I think that it is imperative for the provincial government to have early French immersion. The province is biligual and it negatively impacts the prospects of the children of New Brunswick not to be able to learn French at the earliest possible age.

6:31 am PDT, May 9, Name not displayed, Canada

5:14 am PDT, May 9, Name not displayed, Chile

5:09 am PDT, May 9, Joanne Theriault, Canada

4:32 am PDT, May 9, Julie Boudreau, Canada

4:31 am PDT, May 9, Marcella Pritchett, Canada

4:08 am PDT, May 9, Jennifer Sturgeon, Canada

9:56 pm PDT, May 8, Vanessa Negus, Canada
My daughter is in grade one at this time and if she fails any grades from here on out she will not be able to repeat them in french and continue on in her french studies.. So I bed please reconsider this desicion... It is not fair to the students already taking french that they don't get a chance to finish if they can not pass a grade.

6:22 pm PDT, May 8, Laura Innis, Canada
New Brunswick's children need to actually come first. They need to have the opportunity to be bilingual enough to get jobs in New Brunswick.

10:55 am PDT, May 5, Patrice Hawkes, Canada
In my experience, the weakness is not in the early years, but in the later years (i.e. high school) where there were limited courses in FI. By the time I hit grad 12, French was my only French course!!! Also, I always wondered about the Provincial Testing System. I was dissapointed with a level 2 in the oral interview completed in high school (but in hindsight, I believe the flaw was my shyness and anxiety about the actual interview - not my language skills. My school grades reflected stength in all three areas (reading, writing and speaking), and since then, I have been tested through the Federal Goverment system, where I achieved "advanced" and "exempt" (that is better than advanced) results. I am currently employed in a bilingual essential position. As a parent, I believe the earlier children can be immersed, the better.

5:51 pm PDT, May 4, Dennis Barwise, Canada

5:49 pm PDT, May 4, Jennifer Barwise, Canada

1:52 pm PDT, May 4, Eileen McLean, Canada
I grew up in NB, and was the beneficiary of the early French Immersion program in Saint John. Now that have a family of my own, and am living in our nation's capital, I am sending my girls to the very early intensive French program. I cannot believe that the choice of what language the educate children in is being taken away from the parents of New Brunswick.

10:34 am PDT, May 4, Sheryl Dumville, Canada

1:30 pm PDT, May 3, Alayna MacGillivray, Canada

12:26 am PDT, May 3, Leslie Johnson, Canada

11:07 pm PDT, May 2, Michael Wolfe, Canada
Early French Immersion is at risk in New Brunswick. The Education Minister's plan to scrape French Immersion and early core French is seriously flawed and shows that he is incompetent.

Do we want to become the only bilingual province in Canada that does not offer our children the advantage of the most researched and the best French System in Canada

8:47 pm PDT, May 2, Manon Albert - Wright, Canada
I am so disappointed that they are taking French Immersion out of our schools! I had planned to send my daughter into French Immersion when she was old enough to go to school. T can not believe that that choice has been taken away from us. I was brought up in a french speaking home and went to an english school all my life. I was not put in an early program but when it came to go into the Core Program I did not feel confident enough to enter it. Had I taken the early program, I'm sure I would have continue and done well until I graduated. I do not want daughter to fall in between the cracks just because someone wants to save money or make themselves look good for trying to say money. We pay our taxes so that we can offer our children a better education than we had. If this program is not re-instated, I would consider sending her to a private school or hire someone to teach her at home. I want to give her the best possible chance that I can and that starts at an early age!

1:09 pm PDT, Apr 29, Lisa Hillas, Canada
I grew up in Riverview, NB and am now living in St. Albert, Alberta. I have my daughter in French Immersion kindergarten here and when my son starts school, he will also be put in French Immersion. Why in the world would you want kids from other parts of the country to have a better shot later on in life than the kids in your own province? How many parents won't bother putting their kids in French later on down the road if they can't start as early as grade 1? I've wanted more than anything to move my family back to NB, but if I can't offer my kids the best there is to offer, and part of that is offering them a second language, which the rest of the country gets, then I sure wouldn't be moving to NB! I'm just amazed that a province as bilingual as NB would even come up with such an idea - it's something I can see happening here, out West, where it's not used as much!

12:30 pm PDT, Apr 28, Name not displayed, Canada
Please keep working to keep Immersion. We need to show this government that we will not accept the decision and that we are not going away!

8:50 pm PDT, Apr 27, Marilyn Sood, Canada
I absolutely believe that a second language is best learned early - the earlier the better. It is true that changes are necessary to how French Immersion is currently delivered in New Brunswick, but to eliminate early immersion and delay French instruction - is not the solution. More ressources are necessary to assist children who may be having difficulties, rather than recommend that they switch to an English instruction program. My 2 oldest children are in Frnch Immersion, and I want the same choice for our youngest child.

7:17 am PDT, Apr 27, Melissa Bryden, Canada
I am the mother of three sons in grades 3, 7 & 9 EFI and a member of the second group of EFI students to enter school in Fredericton. I agree that the current system is not producing top results, however it is my opinion that the strongest component of EFI is at the elementary school level. Getting rid of the best part makes no sense. IMPROVE and BUILD UPON the current EFI system! DON’T GET RID OF IT!!!!!

5:38 am PDT, Apr 26, Anne Haley, Canada
As th parent of three children in the French immersion system (two in late immersion, one in early), I can say that the early immersion system has made my child much more comfortable speaking French and bilingual than the late system. Please let all families and children have the option of early immersion. I do like the idea of complete total immersion in grade 5.. Why not continue both??

8:32 am PDT, Apr 24, Kimberly Saucier, Canada

8:10 pm PDT, Apr 23, Debbie Black, Canada

4:05 pm PDT, Apr 23, Sherri Lang, Canada

6:30 am PDT, Apr 23, Tanya Dunphy, Canada

5:45 am PDT, Apr 23, Molly Evans, Canada

5:17 am PDT, Apr 23, David Evans, Canada

4:07 am PDT, Apr 23, Charla Beers, Canada

9:25 pm PDT, Apr 22, Deanna Kenny, Canada
How can Early French Immersion be taken away??? Children learn so quickly when they are young and children who are growing up in a bilingual province should have every right to learn French at a young age. This is there future, these are the children of tomorrow, don't take this wonderful opportunity away from them.

5:26 pm PDT, Apr 22, Pronoti Majithia, Canada
The current changes to the French Immersion program in NB's school system are meant to improve it. How can delaying the introduction of a language possibly 'improve' a child's knowledge of it? It is a question that the NB government has not offered a satisfactory answer to. They seem to be taking a chance with this new method that they are proposing and in the bargain gambling with our children's education.

12:27 pm PDT, Apr 22, Carole Noel, Canada

12:09 pm PDT, Apr 22, Bill Evans, Canada
Keep EFI in NB schools.

The decision to cancel the EFI program was not based on evidence. All the reputable research supports retaining and strengthening EFI. When politicians lie about why they are making decisions, it means that even they know they are wrong.

11:43 am PDT, Apr 22, Esther Mah, Canada
EFI is the most effective way to teach French as a second language. It is wrong to take that choice away from children and parents. We need choices for our education - one size does not fit all!!

11:34 am PDT, Apr 22, Heather Patterson, Canada

10:41 am PDT, Apr 22, Wayne Hunt, Canada

9:47 am PDT, Apr 22, Wanda Severns, Canada
I believe that Early French Immersion is the way to ensure my child's introduction to this officially bilingual province, and to this multilingual world. I am ashamed of this government, and will guarantee they will not receive my vote if this decision stands.

We want this province to be officially bilingual in more ways than administratively. We want children from all backgrounds to have a chance to stay and work in New Brunswick. This decision is counterproductive.