Mandarin Immersion in Vancouver

It seems the Vancouver School Board may be about to open a "can of worms" if it decides to consider or implement Mandarin Immersion in schools where there is a high concentration of Chinese families and students. Having had experience with the implementation of French Immersion in schools in New Brunswick, back in the last century (Yikes!! That makes me feel olde!!), let me lay a few lessons on Vancouver Teachers first, and then on the School Board and the people of B.C.

When the subject of Immersion first came up in N.B., I was still a fresh, young idealistic moron, who believed all the bullshit the government of the time were feeding us. (Richard Hatfield!! Need I say more??) We were assured that no English teachers would lose their jobs as a result of the programme, and that English speaking teachers would be given training in speaking and teaching the French language. Now, most of us had suffered through French classes from Grades 1-12, and those in Liberal Arts had added a few credits in University, so we were not entirely unfamiliar with Francais ( ask me to go into ``the hundreds`` the Olde Fart tends to exxagerate on occasion!! of conjugations of French verbs and my eyes still start rolling in my head, as happens as well when the old fart has had a few too many ales!!). And in the beginning, it seemed that would be the case. We were offered a Summer School Class at the expense of the School Board (UNHEARD OF, then or since!!), and we had, I have to admit, an enjoyable time, listening to tapes en Francais, and experiencing other sights and sounds -for example we got to know French wines rather well!! I guess the then ``young fart`` was more gullible then most; only about a dozen Teachers signed up!! At the end of this arduous session we were assured that the classes would continue during those cold New Brunswick winters, as well as during the summers, and that we would all be ready to go into the immersion classroom in jig time (for you Westerners, a jig is a dance, done usually after half a quart of rum, at great speed, with no discernible rhyme or reason)

Need I continue?? When we went back to classes in the fall, having given up our summer, there was nary a class in sight scheduled for the Fall , Winter, or Spring. The promised Summer session was somehow neglected as well. Nothing was heard of training English Teachers for Immersion again!! Instead, almost all Teachers in Immersion classes had French as their Mother Tongue. We were told that, although there were fewer and fewer English teachers, that this was being made up for by that good old bureaucratic word, "ATTRITION"! There weren't really any English jobs lost,they told the still gullible, English Teachers were retiring in record numbers-or perhaps dying!

But what really broke my heart, and does to this day, is that we lost most of the best and brightest students!!! Every year, there were fewer and fewer in our classrooms, as the upwardly mobile and advantaged parents of these students enrolled their kids more and more frequently in Immersion.And, of course, later parents could say they enrolled their students in Immersion BECAUSE there was a `better class`of student!!! English class sizes grew and remained MUCH larger, while the government could point to AVERAGES, and say that class sizes were falling! They were: in the Immersion classes!! They would have 10 or 12 fewer students than the English classes, and their "disciplinary problems" became a joke to we over-manned English Teachers.



All of this rambling has a point (believe it or not!!) for today's Teachers in Vancouver, and I am sure that Richmond will be close on the heels of the Vancouver Board. Is Immersion really necessary? It was politically expedient in the 60's and 70's to introduce French Immersion-after all it IS one of our OFFICIAL LANGUAGES! But ask those students, including Ye olde farts son, how many of them actually USED their new found French abilities when they left school? I can assure you that that not many would answer in the positive.

AND,LISTEN TO ME TEACHERS: who are some of the best students in your classes right now?? Who are the ones who always have their homework done, contribute to class in innumerable ways, and who continue on to University ( I don't count other "Post-Secondary" institutions, I do apologize! Give me all the job statistics and yearly wages you want- it just "ain't" the same!!) Then wait until the Moronocrats start comparing schools and see the correlation between Mandarin Immersion schools and those without!! (I think that is a despicable practise anyway, but I will leave that for another Blog!!) They (The Moroncrats) are not in the classroom anyway-most haven't been for years, if ever.

School Boards, prepare yourselves for an escalation in absenteeism, requests for counselling and Psychiatric help, and finally: burn out amongst non-Immersion teachers. You won't see it right away, it might take 10 years or more to manifest itself, but mark this down right now, IT WILL HAPPEN!! You will begin to see some of your best and brightest TEACHERS, leaving the schools for other Vocations. Those top students are what bring a little joy to our lives-they often help us get through the day and make it all worth while. Don't take that away! Teachers, don't let it happen. You WILL regret it.

After all, are there not Mandarin schools offered on Weekends anyway? In my experience, children only speak Mandarin at home, because their PARENTS cannot speak English!!!

To be continued, I am sure!!!