Students say program can open doors

But does it foster divisions — elites and have-nots?

Two graduating students who served on the public school board’s immersion task force attest to the nature of French immersion schooling.

Though they attended different elementary schools, both recall having few classmates with special needs. Both remember being seen as a part of an elite group. They are among only one-third of immersion students to stick with the program to Grade 12.

“It tended to be the better students who were in French immersion so we had kind of a bad reputation for being maybe a little bit stuck up,” said Marin Taylor, 18. She remembers that her brother dropped out of immersion when his special needs could not be met.

“When we were younger we used to be like ‘Oh, the English kids, don’t really talk to them.’ It was really separate. I don’t know what created that,” said Mary-Jane Miller, 17.

In the playground at Miller’s school, children separated themselves while building snow forts, the “English muffins” squaring off against “French fries.”

Hallway and playground separations eased in later years as students dropped out of immersion and teaching streams mixed more often in classes, the students said.

Both students speak French comfortably. Miller figures her French will open doors if she becomes a teacher. She passed an independent proficiency test that proves her language skills.

Taylor plans to study at the bilingual University of Ottawa. She didn’t become bilingual until Grade 10, after putting in more effort than immersion classmates whose French is weaker.

It does not surprise them that immersion students outperform their non-immersion schoolmates in Grade 3 tests. Could learning another language build a stronger student, Miller asks?

“Even if they think it’s like this elite program, I don’t think it should be taken out,” she said, arguing to keep French immersion.

“There’s a lot more to it.”

Taylor understands arguments that French immersion segregates top students and that this damages non-immersion classrooms. She also recognizes how she benefitted from this.

She figures that until Grade 6, her education was less about learning French and more about being surrounded by other top students.

“I definitely see that it’s not fair. I just also don’t know if there’s any solution unless there’s a total overhaul of the French immersion program,” Taylor said.

“If I was not personally invested in it, maybe I would be more comfortable agreeing that French immersion should be abolished, or should be heavily changed to focus more on the community.

“But it’s hard when there are so many success stories like me and some of my peers, who really are in a much better place because of it.”

PETER LEE WATERLOO REGION RECORD French immersion student Mary-Jane Miller figures her French will open doors if she becomes a teacher. She wonders if it is learning a second language that builds stronger students.

DAVID BEBEE WATERLOO REGION RECORD French immersion student Marin Taylor understands the controversy surrounding the program, but thinks it is hard to disregard the positive outcomes for students that stay with it. Nevertheless, she and others were sometimes thought to be “a little bit stuck up.”