Photo by Whitehorse Star
Education Minister Doug Graham and Kristina Craig
French immersion program will get needed space
Children on the waiting list for École Whitehorse Elementary School’s Kindergarten French immersion program this September will be accepted, says Education Minister Doug Graham.
Children on the waiting list for École Whitehorse Elementary School’s Kindergarten French immersion program this September will be accepted, says Education Minister Doug Graham.
Graham told the Star this morning that either more space will be found at École Whitehorse Elementary or the 23 children will be taught at Selkirk Elementary School.
“I was the person that started this program back in late 1970s, and it’s not something that we want to see artificially reduced because of space,” Graham said. (He was the minister of Education in a Conservative government. That party became the Yukon Party in the early 1990s.)
“The only difficulty is one of space,” Graham said. “It appears to me that shouldn’t be a very difficult problem to solve.”
The department is preparing for higher numbers of students enrolling in the immersion program in the years to come, and is aware it will need to find a permanent solution, Graham said.
There has been a waiting list in the past, but the minister said he doesn’t think it’s ever been this lengthy.
“The really frightening thing is based on the birth statistics, which as former minister of Health I’m fairly well aware of, next year’s group that will be coming forward is even larger than this year’s, so we can expect a higher number of students next year.”
In 2016, about 420 children in Whitehorse will hit Kindergarten age, compared to 370 this year, Graham said.
The new arrangement will be formally announced next week. It comes after discussions between the department and the local chapter of Canadian Parents for French (CPF).
Chapter president Kristina Craig said this morning she was pleased, and surprised, to hear the news.
“We’re happy with the response for this fall and for these kids,” she said.
“That’s great and that’s fast. It will take the anxiety out, and parents will be able to prep their kids for where they’re going to school in the fall.”
When it comes to determining what should be done in 2016, “we really hope that parents are part of helping to figure that out,” Craig said.
More than 70 students pre-registered for the September 2015 French immersion program last month, with about 54 being accepted.
They’ll form three classes of 18, the maximum number of students permitted in a Kindergarten class. The rest ended up on the waiting list.
In Whitehorse, two French immersion programs are offered at École Whitehorse Elementary.
One sees students start studying the language in kindergarten and the other starts in Grade 6.
Graham said Selkirk is being considered as a possible location for more French immersion programming because it already offers intensive core French.
Hidden Valley Elementary School also offered up space for an immersion program, but it would be logistically challenging to transport students out to that school, he said. It’s located off the Mayo Road, in the MacPherson subdivision.
For the first time this year, the Education department switched to a lottery system to select students for the early immersion program at ÉcoleWhitehorse Elementary, rather than the first-come, first-served method used previously.
CPF suggested this change, Craig said, because the prior system didn’t provide equal opportunity to parents who don’t have access to a computer or the Internet.
As well, parents would log on three minutes after registration opened and the program would be full, she said.
“Prior to the online registration system, parents would camp out in front of Whitehorse Elementary and line up,” Craig recalled.
With the new system this year, parents were given a week to pre-register, and then students were selected randomly.
“What we want to ensure is that if there are parents who want their kids to be in the early French program, we should be able to provide that,” Craig said.
Graham said offering a French immersion education is important because it’s an alternative to what many, including him, grew up with.
“We’re supposed to be a bilingual country,” he said.
“I’m very proud of the fact that the Yukon has the third-largest bilingual population of any jurisdiction in Canada, so we’re third only to New Brunswick and Quebec itself.
“I’d love to see everybody in the territory be able to speak two languages in the next 25 to 50 years ... To me, it’s a goal.”
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Comments (9)
Up 12 Down 4
ProScience Greenie on Mar 13, 2015 at 9:39 am
Learning a second language at a young age is a good thing.
Correction - the Yukon 1% club no longer consists of just the good ole boys from the YP. It's bigger now and consists of people with ties to all three major Yukon political parties. Follow the money in this town and you'll see how the club has changed.
Up 10 Down 3
In an ideal world on Mar 12, 2015 at 10:22 pm
In an ideal world, we are all agreed teaching First Nations language, it's a most for Yukon's people, unfortunately the majority who teach Southern T., Tlingit, in our schools, they can't barely speak. it's hard to teach when you do not have the knowledge to accomplish your work... In fact, the money is there, the will too, but they don't have the human resources.
Up 7 Down 9
iceberg on Mar 12, 2015 at 5:53 pm
@get over it
It is unfortunate that you did not actually understand what I was saying but your response illustrates exactly what I was talking about; you just didn’t get it. I hope we all teach our children to think critically and not be afraid to think for themselves. I try to teach my own children that and be a good example to them by not resorting to name calling (dullard) when I encounter people of different views than my own. Teaching ones’ child to be a good human being costs nothing and the attitudes they are taught in their home has a huge impact on their own and their success in life itself.
EWES is elitist and unfortunately your views are too common place. The school is not decrepit and a school is about a great deal more than bricks and mortar; I can assure you. I think it is largely a case of attitude and having a sense of true community. If we bring our children up to think that those less fortunate than we might be are “drunkards” instead of teaching them about what they can so to change their community and help others less fortunate, things will never change. It is also no surprise to me when we encounter students with such entitled attitudes that name call and look down or exclude others.
You have made many assumptions in your post about me which are false. I have no “beef with EWES” or with “french language/culture/people.” I am of French heritage, speak French (thus no need for classes as you suggest) and my children attended French Immersion. I have a very keen interest in many cultures/peoples and I am happy to say so to my kids.
So, can I guess that you are also amongst those celebrating the increase in French Immersion students to make a great case for a new school in a more desirable neighbourhood away from that “riff raff”? This is the elitist attitude I was referring to!
Up 17 Down 10
Get over it on Mar 12, 2015 at 3:35 pm
@iceberg
Please check your home for a gas leak; you're rambling incoherently.
Anyone is free to enroll their kids at EWES. I did and I did it for the selfish reason of giving my kids the best chance at a productive life with as many options as possible. I also enrolled them in *gasp* music classes, sports and and teach them as much as I can about the world around them. I am deliberately exposing them to the widest set of experiences I can afford (within reason) with they hope they grow into adulthood with a wide range of skills/experiences that will give them multiple paths to choose in their personal and professional lives. Even a dullard such as yourself would realize that a child's malleable brain can learn a second language quickly and later in life pick up a 3rd or 4th language with little effort.
To say EWES is an elitist 1% club is laughable. Have you been in that school? It's pretty decrepit. Have you witnessed what goes on outside the school on a daily basis? The drunkards stumbling, fighting and swearing through the school yard? The daily parade of ambulances to the Salvation Army across the street from the primary playground?
Clearly you have a beef with EWES or the french language/culture/people. Put your kids in there or take a few french classes yourself instead of the woe-is-me whining.
Up 8 Down 21
Wilf Carter I think there Should be more done for First Nation languages on Mar 12, 2015 at 3:15 pm
I think there should be more done to support native languages.
Up 10 Down 10
iceberg on Mar 12, 2015 at 2:04 pm
@ndn I would agree with you however I think you are assuming there are many First Nations kids attending say Ecole Whitehorse Elementary or EET. That isn't the case and in no way reflects the proportion of Yukon First Nations people in the Yukon. There are some, many that begin at Whitehorse Elementary but few that get all the way through the school. FN are generally not part of the Yukon's 1% "entitled" crowd.
Up 14 Down 2
Daniel on Mar 11, 2015 at 8:11 pm
I am not sure if I understand why it would be hard to send children to Hidden Valley School... As I understand it there are children from the area who have applied for french emersion and children living in Porter Creek and there is a empty bus that sits at the pull-out on the highway every morning and afternoon.
Up 20 Down 14
ndn on Mar 11, 2015 at 6:53 pm
its sad when a native knows more french than their own language.
Up 19 Down 11
iceberg on Mar 11, 2015 at 4:27 pm
Minister Doug Graham said in the interview on CBC's New Day that he isn't a member of Yukon's elite and his two children attended French Immersion. The only person he may be fooling might be himself. Guess where his grandchildren will go to school?
Whitehorse Elementary School is indeed the playground of the Yukon's 1%, it is the closest to a private school that we get in the Yukon. Do the demographics on the families that attend that school and you will find it is different than any other school simply based on family income. It is the Mountain View Golf Course of schools.
Ask parents to be honest about why they chose French Immersion and at least 50% would say it has nothing to do with learning a second language but rather attending school with the right kind of kids. For too many it is to avoid the "riff raff" attending other schools in Whitehorse. Ask teachers if they have a big percentage of kids that have little interest in learning French. Even more accurately, ask the parents of Late French Immersion kids why they chose to put their kids in French Immersion for the last two years of elementary and if honest they will indicate that their kids had problems socially in their previous school not a sudden desire to have their children learn a second language. This is why Late French Immersion is struggling to get kids in comparison to the numbers wanting to start at the school in Kindergarten. In the real world the Late French Immersion program would have been cut but not in the Yukon.
If it was about the strong interest in having children learn a second language the demand should be much greater for Late French Immersion but it is clearly not. Learning French is just a factor in the decision of parents to enroll their kids at Whitehorse Elementary and for many not the real reason.
What percentage of the kids registered in Kindergarten for next fall at Ecole Whitehorse Elementary would otherwise have to attend Elijah Smith or Selkirk and that will tell you something beyond a desire to learn a second language.