Language Laws in Quebec’s Schools…time for a critical overhaul.
Student Ordered Out of English School
from the Montreal Gazette.
Nina Wozniak and son Kyle look over pertinent papers, including Kyle's Alberta birth certificate, in their N.D.G. home yesterday. Photograph by: DAVE SIDAWAY, THE GAZETTE, The Gazette. Click for Source.
Imagine knowing you have to send your child to school in a language that isn’t his mother tongue. Despite the fact that such a school is available. Despite the fact that part of the boy’s family, albeit extended, can legally attend the school. Despite the fact that he had difficulties in his French school but “is thriving” in his new English school.
Seems to me it may be time to take a look at Quebec’s language laws when it comes to schooling.
I believe that there are around 350 English public elementary and high schools in Quebec and each year we close more English schools. It’s obvious that the French language in Quebec holds strong now, the reason for the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101) in the first place.
We need to look beyond questions of language and focus on questions that bring us to the heart of learning. Our provincial curriculum places the learner at the centre of the educational process. How does this practice reflect that? How can we believe in a state-run education system that exists within a structure whose values do not jive?
Whoa. Disconnect.
Do you have similar disconnects in your education systems?