Hacker News Reader

Comment by kejaed | Hacker News Reader

Exactly, how many people coming to Montreal would be happy that their kids could only go to school in French?

Probably about as many parents who are fighting to get their kids in French Immersion in the rest of Canada. I can't speak about anywhere other than Toronto but here it's quite sought after, second language for children.

Especially amongst first generation immigrants like myself.

That's not because of French language, they would try even if it had Zulu immersion. It's just that it's cheaper than private schools, but you still get good students and quality environment

Exactly. The school rankings are the driver here, not french language.

Correct. The parents that care put their children into French immersion because other like-minded parents do so and their children are high-achieving.

Any teacher will tell you that parenting is the biggest determining factor in academic achievement, and as a result French immersion is effectively the "academic stream" in the Canadian school system. It also receives additional federal funding which is not available to English programs.

A Zulu-immersion charter school is my new Toronto-based startup idea.

The difference is that in the rest of Canada, your child (and their children) does not lose their right to go to English school if they go to a French school first.

Anyone wants to work for the federal government or in politics needs French, beyond a certain level. So making sure your kids learn it opens some really valuable opportunities for them.

I don't speak French but would love to put my kids in a French-only school.

They pretty much learn a second language for free. Why not?

If by "free" you mean "at the cost of learning anything else".

I went to French immersion in Canada. We didn't 'miss out' on anything that kids did in English school. They still had to take a second language class (we didn't since we already had English + French). We just had classes like science, math and social studies in French as well. We still learned English, and of course live in an English-speaking region, so we missed out on nothing.

You miss out on special education support. Have reading troubles? Behind the curve in math ability? Have motor skills issues that make writing difficult? You're told to drop out of French immersion and return to the main English stream. It's a de-facto removal of anyone with any academic problems at all.

And by extension, English schools that overlap with French immersion schools become biased towards kids with learning difficulties which makes them that much less attractive to high-achieving parents. The TDSB elementary system isn't supposed to be streamed but effectively it is.

(I had two kids in TBSB French immersion until grade 4 when we moved away)

How many people come to the rest of Canada and are happy that their kids are forced to learn English?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com