He did not say Canadian kids don't get pregnant. He said his daughters did not get pregnant.

With a 'heavy' suggestion that if raised in the UK like their cousins they wouldn't escape pregnancy. Sorry, but that's how I read it. Good for him though, it sounds like his children did great and that's what we want for all our kids wherever they are raised.

WOW, Ipswich kids sound like a challenge and a half. I was a teacher in the UK too and there are some worrying areas eh? I was lucky to work in some great schools but I also worked in PRUs and a high security prison. OOOOHHH...stressful indeed.

I am yet to see that ultra 'rough' element here and the kids are generally amazing and polite. However, I have never taught at inner city Toronto or Vancouver schools but I hear they have their problems there too. I know drugs are rife here in BC. Kids smoke 'weed' at lunch time and often appeared 'stoned'. No wonder the classroom management was easy when they had little to no homework to do and were off in la, la land!

I really 'get' your drift when you talk about taking your kids away from what you see as an idyllic place and able to be kids, free from the cynicism etc. I so, so get that. I hope that when we go home we choose an area well to avoid that happening. It's a worry for me too. It's also amazing to entertain a teen here.....ski, surf, kayaking....great weather (on the island BC). That makes it easier I guess to keep your kids happy and occupied and out of trouble I guess. But can i survive and be happy here.....sadly no.....and I feel terribly guilty for it.

We hope to do long teacher holidays here so they know their gorgeous Canadian home too and we'd never say never abut coming back. Sadly, work is difficult to get for me and I miss the job security. We'll see.....are you working as a teacher here and where are you? Best teacher wishes to you!

I like the same class thing too. It certainly builds strong relationships and allows teachers to develop the class dynamics, both good and bad. My friends here, both English and Canadian are very frustrated with the system right now and the lask of funds but nothing ever changes. The kids are 'easy' to manage so unless they rebel we won't see any change. Sad for the kids.

The French Immersion parents seem the happiest and most confident that their kids are getting a good schooling. The class sizes are small and few kids with special needs.

ha!

My kid is in FI, there are 25 in the class, and past years have had special needs kids. I dont know what is typical. I do like FI, but it scares me that as parents we are less able to support in French.

We have had problems with a particular teacher and had to cause a bit of a fuss in order to get our daughter transferred within the school. I dont think Canada is much different to the UK in terms of the number of parents who take the time to have an active interest in their kids schooling and performance, people here are not so very different.

What is different is the absence of teaching aimed solely at improving test score results, which is generally a good thing, although there are a few teachers who could use a kick up the arse that seem to slip along in the system relatively unchallenged.

Come on cough up....(ha,ha) why do you have such a dislike for FI? I know when I first arrived, my upwardly mobile, loaded Brit in-laws were all about FI and would talk about how 'rough' it was on the English side of the school etc. There is a definite class thang going on there.....but they all seem to be challenged and enjoying school.....?? Is it a class issue? Money? Or do you have an aversion to super parenting. I know I do!

I think you are misreading the post, there was nothing negative about FI there that I saw, its was a late addition to the list of positive things.


I dont think specialising at middle or junior school level is a positive myself, I think it lets the parents preferences and prejudices limit their kids opportunities in other areas that go unexplored. How many kids are really settled into what they like and excel at at such a young age?

Sorry, referring to this post.

Sorry, I was referring to this post that Kiwilass made. I'm just truly interested in FI and what people think. I love the idea of a kid having the opportunity to learn a new language. I think it's amazing and if we were here I would do it for our kids. They can then access the whole country....and beyond. Culturally it's quite closed off here so I think it's a great chance to broaden their horizons.....

Well, they can access the whole country with English too. No worries there. And it's not like they don't learn French at school anyway - they do.

As for whether Quebecois opens up the world, I'm not sure I agree... I noticed Quebeckers having quite a hard time in Paris, getting mistaken for english speakers, etc.

And that's assuming they're actually learning Quebecois from a native speaker in FI, a very debatable proposition.

My French is pretty awful so I'm not too good at discerning the 'quality' of French they are learning. I have heard it can be poor and FI is a language all of its own. Who knows? There's pros and cons I guess but I know so many people who love it. I guess for Brits they feel they're getting a very privileged education for their kids. Canadians never seem so enthusiastic abut it and usually have their kids in it because they have French family, or are Quebeckers. Funny old system. I wish everyone got French from very young but they don't. It's as good as the Brit system learning a language. They start them too little, too late. Ah well....

I looked into FI pretty seriously for my kid. Part of what turned me off was all the parental insanity around it, at least here. THE OMG SHE"S ON THE WAIT LIST the queueing up the night before etc. etc. Gah.

Then there was the snobbery. A lot of the parents I know want FI because they think there'll be less ESL (read: asian) kids in it, though actually I don't know if that's true. That's the perception though. And yeah, less special needs allegedly. But those weren't the only reasons. I think FI is trendy right now, but I haven't found a great deal of evidence to prove it's a better option than a good English school, of which there are plenty in this area. I am concerned about the lack of native French teachers in the system. There is a desperate shortage of FI teachers anyway, so that gives me pause about the quality that's out there. And are they actually native Quebecois, or kids who've been through FI? Which leads to my concern about what exactly it is they're learning to speak. Concerns that they're learning to speak a mish-mash fringlish/patois rather than true Quebecois, especially here in BC where the number of French speakers is really small and they don't get to hear it or interact with french speakers out of school, where they're really only interacting with FSL kids like them.

WE have a good friend who studied her masters with the academic who pioneered the programme in Ontario. It was interesting hearing her take on it, which was not positive. She said he was trying to bring the two cultures together rather than create a 2 tiered school system.

I don't like that it divides kids within a school (a lot of schools here are dual-track). I personally would like to see FI abolished and french language training improved for ALL kids, rather than the few who get in.

I'm not convinced taking a child out of it's native language that young and basically forcing them to be an FSL (french as second language) student is all that smart, which ties into my former point about improving french language training for all kids, but having it part of the English system instead of separated out. One of my friends, a teacher, is tutoring an ex-FI student right now who has gone all through the FI system but now can't write a decent essay in English. Her english is fine on a certain level, but that's it. However she can write great essays in French! Fab! Except most ********** require English. Duh.

I don't think FI is the guarantee of future academic success some people like to think it is, basically.

I might feel differently if I lived in a mixed french/english area like in parts of Ontario or the maritimes because at least then the kids would be hearing it used in real life and it would be useful.

We have kid in Italian lessons once a week through the cultural centre and her school. Which sounds like we're trying really hard but they're held in a classroom of her school with a bunch of kids from her school, so it was like, woo, childcare and language, no brainer! Frankly around here she's more likely to hear Italian/use Italian than French anyway.

Plus the FI school (we did get a spot for FI but turned it down) was a half an hour walk away and that's just too damn far in the rain

sorryfor the rambly and disjointed post.

I don't know why "**********" is blanked out in my previous post. WEIRD

I don't know why a phrase that mentions getting employment in a province called BC is a problem?

har