Let me start by saying I have no vendetta against bilingualism and can see the merits of being Canada's only officially bilingual province. I agree that individuals should be encouraged and enabled to protect and practice their culture. Personally, I am very proud of my Scottish heritage and try to pass down some of that pride to my girls. My wife's Lebanese heritage is very important to us also, and several aspects of that culture have been passed down to us by her parents and grandparents.
But I have struggled for years to get an answer to a relatively simple question. Why do students need to be fully immersed in a language to learn that language? Why do children who primarily speak English (or other non-French languages) outside of school, need to learn all subjects in French in order to learn the French language? To be clear, I agree that it is good for our children to learn French and graduate from high school being fully bilingual, but I don't understand why we need to create a dual track school system with a full immersion in French to reach that goal.
I didn't do it, but when I was going through the core english school system 20 years ago, I could have taken French language courses all through my 12 years of schooling, and then graduated with a full bilingual ability. My older, wiser self wishes I had.
My wife went through the French immersion system in the same era, and she feels like having learnt all her school subjects in French has hurt her as an adult. Not knowing the English terminology has hurt her when she is trying to apply these terms in the real world, which uses english as its main language. She has used her bilingual abilities in her career, and is glad she speaks French, but feels should could have the same abilities without have been fully immersed.
The reality is, most of university and post secondary degrees are taught in English. So if, for example, my daughters finished school in the French immersion system, and then decided to go to MIT, or Queens, or UNB to take Engineering, they will have a disadvantage at first, because they will have to translate all of the math and science they have been taught in French back to English.
I would be very happy if my daughters graduate from high school being fully bilingual, and I will encourage them to do so. I will encourage them to learn French, Spanish and Chinese, as these languages will help them communicate with a wide majority of the people they will meet on this earth; but I will not put them in French immersion, because I do not see the advantage of it.
I understand that as a bilingual province we have a responsibility to allow our French speaking residents to learn in the French language and by extension their protect their French culture; but this does not require an immersion track. We have a network of French-only schools for that purpose, and I am happy we provide that. Carrying the logic through, I would expect to see Chinese or Korean or other language specific schools be provided if other populations reach similar levels to the French speakers in the province.
If anyone has more information on why immersion is required to produce bilingual students, please provide it, and I would be happy to study it. I would actually feel better if I learnt that there was a good reason for our immersion program, not just a political motivation.
In a practical sense, this system creates hardship for children like mine, who make friends from K to grade 2, and then have many of those school friends leave their school and go elsewhere in grade 3. I can tell you for a fact that this transition has caused many tears and heartfelt conversations at bed time in my house. And they don't ask me to put them in French immersion...they don't want to have to switch to learning everything in French. My 11 year old loves her French classes though, and has embraced the language, despite remaining in core English.
