Cross Posting my Intolerance

“Presently, in terms of language learning, at the kindergarten level, there are only two choices: English and French,” said Eileen Sue, a member of B.C. Parents for Mandarin.

“We do feel that children learn languages best before the age of nine. They are language sponges.”

Learning Mandarin will give children an edge, helping them better compete with European students who regularly learn English on top of their native languages in school, she said.”

Em, European kids don’t learn Mandarin or Cantonese.  They learn ENGLISH and their native language.  WE - supposedly a BI-lingual nation, SHOULD be learning FRENCH and English- but due to the half-assed way THAT set up in NON FRENCH provinces, has been a dogs breakfast unless you camp out overnight to get your kid in French Immersion.

This is from a Vancouver Sun article, where some Vancouver parents want Manadarin taught in school.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I am all for children learning a second language.  I wish bilingualism was REAL and that we all spoke French and English.   It isn’t.  Not here in the west anyway.

But frankly, the only reason I can see learning Manadarin or Cantonese here is to help the already Mandarin and Cantonese speaking people have an easier time NOT learning English.

A Manadarin or Cantonese speaking person can do amazingly well without ANY English in the Lower Mainland.

And even ESL is rarely taken seriously by parents for their kids.  Again, because they don’t HAVE to learn English.  They rarely try to speak with other parents or kids and so really, where is the multiculturalism?  My kids are not making friends with these kids and neither are the parents because of the language barriers, and now it is up to ME and my child to fix this?

Lets not forget the myriad of OTHER cultures that make up Vancouver.  My son’s class has a huge population from Latin America.  Why are we not focusing on Spanish?

This is multiculturalism in Vancouver.

So yes, brand me a racist.  Go ahead.  I am sure some people will.

On top of this, our school was part of THIS debacle.  However, we were given far less information by our school than these parents recieved.  THAT pisses me off.

My son’s little class has been split up between kindergarten and grade two.  HE went over to the kindergarten class, back to a teach we don’t like and who was NOT a great confidence builder for my son.

Saying I am not happy is an understatement.

One of the other parents was fuming too.    Basically her daughter and my son were put there with mostly what was the full time (ESL) kindergartners last year.

So what was wrong with our kids?

The other mom is devastated that her daughter is being separated from her friends.

Adam is buddies with a lot of kids so that doesn’t seem to bother him so much…but being back with THAT teacher does not impress me.  She was not good at building his confidence.  He had blossomed in the last 3 weeks with his new teachers.

I do have to stop fuming and just see how he does.  If he isn’t happy, we will explore other schools.  And in the meantime, pray that we can just find an affordable house somether far far away and go and start fresh.

Seriously….THIS is parenting.  Having a baby is not parenting.   Watching them grow and trying to make their life the best you can…THAT is parenting.  That is what adds the gray hairs.