Five years after ouster, Chris Collins is back in the political fray
Former MLA pushed out over harassment in 2018 is now the face of French immersion fight
It was a surreal moment at the New Brunswick Legislature: no fewer than four MLAs rose at the start of the sitting day last Nov. 3 to welcome back a former speaker who had been shunned by the institution less than five years before.
Chris Collins, forced out in April 2018 due to a harassment complaint, was back in the political fray as executive director of the New Brunswick chapter of Canadian Parents for French.
"Chris, it's a pleasure to have you here today," said Restigouche-Chaleur Liberal MLA Daniel Guitard, himself a former speaker like Collins.
"Under his leadership, we started to deal with our decorum issues here in the legislature. Chris, thanks so much. Have a good day in Fredericton."
Liberal Francine Landry, Green MLA Megan Mitton, and current speaker Bill Oliver, a Progressive Conservative, also welcomed Collins, seated in the public gallery with other CPF members.
"It was weird. It was very weird," Collins said in an interview. "I'll pull no punches on that. I received a lot of apologies from people, which was nice. … It felt good. It was just one of those things you have to get by."
Collins at an October protest by francophone and Indigenous groups. (Ed Hunter/CBC News)
CPF is pressuring the Higgs government to reverse its plan to replace French immersion this fall with a different model for teaching French to anglophone students.
After virtually vanishing from the political map, the former Moncton East and Moncton Centre MLA is now one of the most prominent voices in that battle.
He spoke at a protest by francophone and Indigenous groups in October, attended public consultation sessions in the immersion plan in January and has met regularly with all political parties — including the one he was a member of — to update them on CPF's strategy.
"It's been very awkward, at times extremely awkward, and it's been difficult, quite frankly," he said.
But "it's something I'm glad to have gone through. It's been — I guess 'therapeutic' would be a word for it. But at the same time it's been extremely fulfilling and it seems to be going quite well."
In April 2018, then-Premier Brian Gallant announced the Liberal caucus was expelling Collins because of a harassment complaint against him as speaker from an employee of the legislature.
Education Minister Bill Hogan, left, speaks with Collins at a public consultation meeting in Saint John. (Michèle Brideau/Radio-Canada)
The all-party legislative administration committee commissioned an investigation and later said the complaint was "founded in part," though the report was never released.
Collins offered a "complete and unreserved" public apology but said the "overwhelming majority" of the allegations against him had been deemed unfounded.
He said he made comments to the employee that he considered "humorous and inoffensive" but that were "perceived as inappropriate."
He later filed a lawsuit against Gallant, the provincial government and the legislature for breach of employment contract, breach of privacy and abuse of authority.
In that suit, he said the investigator concluded 77 of 80 allegations were unfounded and two instances of abuse of authority and one of harassment had violated the harassment policy.
He alleged Gallant initially dismissed a complaint from the staffer in 2016, then revived it in 2018 after Collins as speaker wouldn't let the Liberals introduce partisan motions attacking Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs.
Chris Collins has an ongoing lawsuit over his dismissal as Speaker by former premier Brian Gallant. (Jacques Poitras/CBC News)
He alleged Gallant's office got the legislature adopt the provincial government's workplace harassment policy so it would apply to MLAs, then encouraged the woman to use it to file the complaint against Collins.
In 2020 a judge ruled Collins could not sue the legislature. His claim against Gallant and the government remains before the courts, unresolved and unproven.
"It's been a quite a journey and I'm just looking forward to having my day in court and getting this over with and putting it behind me and moving on," Collins said in an interview about his return to the public spotlight.
Collins would not discuss the substance of the allegations and the lawsuit, but he suggested his former Liberal colleagues accept his version of events.
He said the welcome from party MLAs in November "was apologetic and it was warm and I appreciated that. … They seemed to know what happened. It was all good."
Gallant said in a statement in June 2020 he looked forward "to the opportunity that the legal process will afford me to dispel false claims being made and to make public the relevant factors which impacted the decisions made in response to the actions of certain parties."
Collins
at the public consultations in Saint John. Collins describes his being
welcomed by MLAs in the legislature last fall as 'weird.' (Graham Thompson/CBC News)
In a statement of defence in July 2020, Gallant and the province said they "acted lawfully, appropriately [and] in the public's best interest."
The former premier did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
Collins was suspended as speaker and didn't run for the Liberals in the 2018 election. He ran as an independent and lost to Liberal Rob McKee.
In the wake of that defeat, he did public relations consulting. When the CPF job came up, he jumped at the opportunity.
"I didn't feel that I had finished serving the people of New Brunswick," he said.
He said he's aware the circumstances of his 2018 departure from politics were discussed in the hiring process, but "this board gave me this chance and I've been extremely appreciative.
"I've worked very hard for them and I believe we're making a lot of headway as an organization on this issue."
A former legislature staffer who knew him was involved with the hiring, which made it "extra special," he said.
Some 'trolling'
Collins says his 11 years as an MLA allow him to help CPF understand how politicians react to pressure campaigns and how they can be persuaded to change their minds.
There has been some "trolling" over the harassment allegations since his return to the public arena, "but it's been very minimal," Collins said.
"They like to take shots at the organization, more than me. I've had a lot of support. … The ones that do remember what happened back in 2018 have been extremely supportive of me."
He said he and current Liberal Leader Susan Holt – who was working in Gallant's office at the time Gallant announced that Collins was out – have not talked about what happened.
"We talk business," he said, calling Holt "approachable."
Holt did not agree to an interview request but Liberal spokesperson Ashley Beaudin said the party "believes in working collaboratively with all relevant stakeholders on the various issues facing the province, and it is under this lens that we have developed a good working relationship with Mr. Collins."
Collins emphasized he considers himself apolitical now, working with all parties to try to reverse the goverment's decision on immersion.
"We want to win this and have government have the opportunity to reverse this decision," he said.
"That'll be a great day for Canadian Parents for French and the people of New Brunswick and the anglophone youth of New Brunswick, especially. … I'll eventually retire from this organization and I believe that when I retire, we're going to be winners as an organization."
Automatic reply: YO John Mclaughlin Methinks your boss Big Bad Billy Hogan is gonna oversee quite a circus in Fat Fred City ce soir N'esy Pas Dominic Cardy?
Premier of Ontario | Premier ministre de l’Ontario<Premier@ontario.ca> | Wed, Jan 25, 2023 at 5:07 PM |
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YO John Mclaughlin Methinks your boss Big Bad Billy Hogan is gonna oversee quite a circus in Fat Fred City ce soir N'esy Pas Dominic Cardy?
David Amos<david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com> | Wed, Jan 25, 2023 at 5:07 PM |
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Wednesday, 25 January 2023 Methinks everybody loves a circus N'esy Pas? | |
Immersion plan unanimously denounced as Saint John meeting draws large crowd
Minister says there’s ‘lots of time’ to opt for keeping immersion this fall
The Higgs government faced another angry, skeptical crowd Tuesday night as public consultations on its plan to replace French immersion in New Brunswick schools took place in Saint John.
More than 300 people turned out, and all 27 who spoke at the meeting denounced the proposal to implement a new program in time for this fall.
"It should go without saying that reducing French immersion by 50 per cent is not going to improve French," said parent Micah Peterson, who has five children in immersion now and two more he still hopes to enrol.
He said some of his own immersion classmates from his school years are now teaching immersion to his children.
"You think they're going to be able to do that when you cut it in half? It's ridiculous."
The immersion program works, and that is backed up with data, all caps.
- Olivia Donovan
Retired teacher Olivia Donovan of Saint John, who now supervises student teachers for the University of New Brunswick, said the province should use its massive budget surpluses to tackle problems it claims the elimination of immersion will address.
"No. 1, it is never wise to axe one program that is working to fix one that is not," she said. "It is the English prime system that needs help. The immersion program works, and that is backed up with data, all caps."
The government announced in December that it will start phasing out French immersion in September, replacing it at the kindergarten and Grade 1 levels with a program that will see all students spend half their classroom time learning English and half learning French.
That is less French than the current immersion program but more French than what non-immersion students now get.
Organizers heckled
At last week's consultation in Moncton, an angry crowd forced Department of Education and Early Childhood Development officials to scrap their "world café" meeting format in favour of letting attendees speak at will.
In Saint John on Tuesday, the crowd also heckled organizers and called for an open-microphone session. The facilitators compromised by shortening the world café portion and letting anyone who wanted to speak do so.
Olivia
Donovan is a retired teacher who now supervises student teachers for
the University of New Brunswick. She says axing French immersion won't
fix the problems with the English system. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
The meeting was scheduled to end at 8:30 p.m. but continued until about 9:15 p.m., when no one was left at the microphones.
"I heard a lot of great comments tonight," Education Minister Bill Hogan told reporters. "I heard a lot of great concerns."
Hogan said the province's plan could still change.
"We're having consultations because nothing at this point is written in stone," he said. "If it was written in stone it would be silly to have consultations."
Reacting to criticism from one participant who had pointed out the government claims to be listening after already closing registration for French immersion this fall, Hogan told reporters even that could change.
"There's still lots of time if we were to choose to do Grade 1 French immersion next year. Like, it's only January. So there's tons of time should we choose that path."
Timeline moved up
Last October, Premier Blaine Higgs said the replacement for immersion had to start in September 2023 because it was unlikely a major change could happen in 2024, a provincial election year.
Hogan said he hopes for a final decision by late winter or early spring.
Some speakers at the Saint John meeting said they were worried about how children with learning challenges and deaf children would cope with only half their classroom time devoted to learning to read in their first language.
Others said eliminating immersion would make it harder for anglophone school graduates to compete for the government jobs that require bilingualism.
Several teachers spoke at Tuesday's session, many of them referring to a New Brunswick Teachers Association email sent Monday that warned members to stick to "pedagogical issues" if they took part in the consultations.
Ryan Murphy, a teacher at St. Malachy's Memorial High School, said he was worried about the 10 per cent of his students whose first language is neither English nor French.
Education
Minister Bill Hogan and Minister of Aboriginal Affairs Arlene Dunn
listen to speakers during the public consultation session in Saint John.
(Jacques Poitras/CBC)
"They are learning English as they learn to code," he said. "They are learning English as they learn a new world.
"We must consider how these students … will be affected by having to learn two new languages. Will resource supports be duplicated for French? … Will that overwhelm the already overwhelmed?"
Besides Hogan, only two Progressive Conservative MLAs attended the consultation: Arlene Dunn, a cabinet minister and member for Saint John Harbour, and Andrea Anderson-Mason of Fundy-The Isles-Saint John West, who last week urged the government to "pump the brakes" on the plan.
A final in-person
consultation is scheduled for Wednesday night in Fredericton, with two
more virtual meetings planned for next week.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Those who don't, don't. You know, like all the other Provinces.
Quebec speaks out about New Brunswick's 'very worrying' French immersion reforms
Politicians weigh in on controversial plans to change the way French is taught in schools
Quebec's minister responsible for the Canadian Francophonie today called the New Brunswick government's plan to reform French immersion in schools a very troubling sign.
Jean-François Roberge says he is following the situation in New Brunswick closely.
His government considers New Brunswick's Acadian minority to be struggling, but he did not specify what actions Quebec could take to help them.
New Brunswick's current immersion program offers up to 90 per cent of class time in French, while the program to be introduced in September devotes half the day to learning in French and the other half to English instruction for subjects such as math, reading and writing.
I am looking at how we can act.
- Jean-François Roberge, Quebec's minister responsible for the Canadian Francophonie
Roberge notes that he has to be careful not to meddle in the administration of another province.
"I am looking at how we can act," he said. "It's certainly very worrying when a Franco-Canadian community outside Quebec is in difficulty."
Quebec Premier Francois Legault said at a party event Thursday that he has an added responsibility as the only political leader in North America representing a francophone majority.
The New Brunswick government says the goal of its reforms is to ensure all graduates in the anglophone sector have at least a "conversational level" of French. The province prides itself on being the only officially bilingual province in Canada but has lamented how most of its anglophone graduates can't speak French.
Critics have packed public consultations held over the past week, questioning what evidence the government has on the shortcomings of the existing immersion program and demanding that the reform be scrapped.
How effective was the 50-50 'Bathurst model' of French learning?
Premier, top official say success rate was high, but numbers show below-average results
That's one of the questions dominating public consultation meetings on the province's plan to replace French immersion this fall with a new "50-50" model.
The answer, straight from Premier Blaine Higgs, is that he knows it will work because it's not entirely new.
"The interesting thing about this program is that it worked very well in Bathurst, for, I think, 10 years," Higgs said in a year-end interview with CBC News in December.
Premier
Higgs has said that French immersion has not been effective because not
all graduates are bilingual and most anglophone students aren't even in
the program. (Ed Hunter/CBC file photo)
"All of the statistics show that program worked really well, but yet it was dropped for the current French immersion program that didn't have the same level of functionality at all. So go figure. So we're not inventing the wheel here. We're inventing a program that worked."
Assessment scores, however, call into question the premier's assertion that the Bathurst program had better "functionality."
And critics of the government's plan say the program was also very different in key ways that make it impossible to compare it to the current proposal.
The program to be phased in starting this fall would see all students in anglophone kindergartens and elementary schools spend half their day learning in English and half in French.
Higgs has complained that French immersion hasn't been effective, because not all graduates are bilingual and most anglophone students aren't even in the program.
Various potential replacement models are being tested at 24 schools around the province, but the 50-50 program for K-5 students that the province has chosen is not among them.
John
McLaughlin, deputy education minister for anglophone schools, said 'the
success rate was very high' on the Bathurst project. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
At the legislature's public accounts committee Jan. 15, the deputy minister of education for anglophone schools John McLaughlin told MLAs the 50-50 proposal "is not being piloted anywhere at this point."
That has prompted some participants at public consultation sessions to urge the government to slow down before it implements a replacement for immersion.
"Take the next year and do actual research. Produce actual curriculum. Then, do what is best practice when it comes to implementing a new program: pilot it in a handful of willing schools," immersion teacher Derek Bradford said at the Fredericton session.
"And then maybe we can see if this program actually has a chance for success."
That's not necessary, according to the province, because of the Bathurst model's track record.
Department spokesperson Danielle Elliot says that, as in the current proposal, math and language arts were taught in English in the Bathurst system, while French was taught through language arts "as well as [though] thematic and exploratory learning" in other subjects.
McLaughlin told MLAs on the committee last week that "the success rate was very high" in Bathurst.
"It matched the success that the early immersion program got at the same time," in which students were immersed in French for 90 per cent of the day, he said.
"The 50 [per cent] in Bathurst, and the 90 per cent in all other communities, they matched," he said.
French
immersion teacher Derek Bradford told a consultation meeting this week
that the province should pilot its proposed 50-50 program in several
schools next year before implementing it province wide. (Ed Hunter/CBC)
CBC News asked the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development for data to back up those claims.
It provided eight years' worth of assessments of students who enrolled in immersion in the 1982-83 school year through the 1989-90 school year.
The assessments were done when the students reached Grade 12, so they were categorized by high school.
Students at Bathurst High School had been through the 50-50 program, while those at the 14 other schools started immersion in Grade 1 with 90 per cent of class time in French, the department said.
Here is what the numbers showed:
-
97.7 per cent of the Bathurst students reached the "intermediate" level of French or higher. Bathurst High ranked 13th among the 15 schools and was below the average of 99 per cent.
-
77.7 per cent of the Bathurst High students reached the "intermediate-plus" level or higher. That was 12th among the 15 schools and below the average of 84.6 per cent.
-
38.6 per cent of Bathurst High students were at the "advanced" level or higher, ranking ninth among the 15 schools and below the average of 42.3 per cent.
Notably, "advanced" is the goal for graduates of the early immersion program — so in the Bathurst program, 60 per cent of grads didn't get there.
The goal of the new 50-50 program, however, is for all anglophone students to acquire "conversational" French.
"Intermediate" French is defined by the department as a student being "able to satisfy routine social demands and limited requirements" at work, and capable of "simple conversation, with some paraphrasing."
So at 97.7 per cent, the Bathurst model was more successful at that level.
This
table shows assessments for students who enrolled in French immersion,
and the Bathurst 50-50 program. The province says the students were
enrolled from the 1982-83 to 1989-90 school years, and the assessments
were done when they reached Grade 12, between 1993 and 2001. (GNB)
But critics point out it's not clear those results would be reproduced provincewide because of key differences between the the two half-and-half models.
"The Bathurst 50-50 was an elective. The parents chose that program," says Bob Bernier, a retired teacher who oversaw French second-language programs in English schools.
In contrast, the new 50-50 program will be mandatory for all anglophone students.
Retired
teacher Bob Bernier believes the Bathurst results would have been
helped by the fact students there would be exposed to some French around
the city. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
Bernier, now a member of Canadian Parents for French, says children of parents who oppose their kids learning any French may bring a negative attitude to class, affecting their success.
French-language education expert Léo-James Lévesque of St. Thomas University, an ardent opponent of the government's plan, agrees.
"In an optional class, students select to be there, want to be there, so [it's] much easier to find momentum in your motivation than when you have students who are told to be in a program."
A second difference is that in Bathurst, parents could withdraw their children from the program at any time – just like immersion in general.
That won't be possible under the current 50-50 proposal.
"How's that going to work into a universal program? Fair question to ask, I would think," Lévesque says.
French-language
education expert Léo-James Lévesque of St. Thomas University said he
doesn't think the Bathurst program produced the numbers 'that we're
looking for.' (St. Thomas University)
Whether withdrawals skewed the Bathurst assessments is hard to say: the department doesn't know how many students opted out of the program.
"As data collection practices have changed over the past 30-40 years, we do not have specific data tied to enrolment or withdrawals for local programs," said spokesperson Morgan Bell.
Bernier also believes the Bathurst results would have been helped by the fact students there would be exposed to some French around the city, which he says won't be the case in places like Sussex and Woodstock.
It adds up to a tenuous comparison, Lévesque says.
"To say that it's the same … I think it's stretching it. To say the program in Bathurst was what it is and worked, yes, it worked for that area. But I don't think it produced the numbers that we're looking for — for the province."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
On Google Earth, they use simple symbology; same shape, red, and a white bar across it. We are not nearly as advanced as Europe.
Just saying!
Criticisms soar in Fredericton as speakers attack N.B. plan to replace French education
Minister says proposed program the same as French immersion but in a 'different format'
Education Minister Bill Hogan heard yet more Wednesday night from teachers and parents who are critical of a plan he's spearheading to drastically revamp French language education for anglophone students in New Brunswick.
The fourth and final in-person public consultation session on the province's proposed "innovative immersion program" drew a crowd of more than 300 people in Fredericton.
Of the 34 speakers who rose to address the issue, not one spoke in favour of the plan — echoing the same dynamic at a meeting the night before in Saint John.
Criticisms focused on the lack of evidence that the government presented to demonstrate the new program's merits, and concerns about adding stress to teachers who are already overwhelmed amid staff shortages and a lack of resources.
"If you decide to remodel a kitchen, one would think that they would spend time, money and other resources improving the kitchen rather than replacing the entire house," said Heather Hollett, who identified herself as an educator working in Anglophone School District West.
"Likewise, if an issue has been identified, rather than taking apart the system, I would suggest gathering data and pouring resources… into education by way of more educational assistants, behaviour mentors, support intervention workers."
Meanwhile, Donna McLaughlin, a retired teacher, said the public has yet to see the data supporting the proposed changes.
"We haven't seen the research that you are proposing. You have yet to mention who your experts are," she said.
The New Brunswick government announced in December that it will start phasing out French immersion in September, replacing it at the kindergarten and Grade 1 levels with a program that will see all students spend half their classroom time learning English and half learning French.
More
than 300 people showed up to a public consultation session on proposed
changes to French second language education in New Brunswick. (Ed Hunter/CBC)
That is less French than the current immersion program but more French than what non-immersion students now get.
In-person consultations on the planned changes were held in Bathurst and in Moncton last week, with participants at the Moncton session heckling Hogan and forcing the event organizers to abandon the original format in favour of one closer resembling an open-mic format. None of the roughly 20 people who spoke there were in favour of the proposed changes.
Head of language institute denounces plan
Attendees included Paula Kristmanson, director of the Second Language Research Institute of Canada at the University of New Brunswick.
Kristmanson said the institute, made up of teachers and educators at UNB's faculty of education, promotes evidence-based approaches to French second-language training, and supports well-researched initiatives to enhance it.
Members
of the Second Language Research Institute of Canada are concerned with
the proposed elimination of the current French immersion program, said
Paula Kristmanson, the institute's director. (Ed Hunter/CBC)
"However, we are deeply troubled with the most recent announcement to implement one new French second language program for all in September 2023," Kristmanson said.
"Our concerns relate not only to the compressed timeline, which makes the development of any sound program practically impossible, but also to the potential elimination of French Immersion, which is the only [French second language] program that has proven results with respect to learning French second language."
Moira Buyting, who has children currently in French immersion, said she's concerned New Brunswick could become less bilingual under a program that doesn't offer as intense French second-language training as is offered with the current immersion program.
She also questioned whether teachers will have enough time to get prepared for the change in time for its planned implementation next fall.
"We have just come through two years of COVID, we continue to experience the after-effects of that with rises in absenteeism, and I feel like the system just needs to pause and catch up," she said.
"The teachers need to be rejuvenated and the kids need to just have a sense of consistency."
Program equal to French immersion: Hogan
In multiple instances during the open mic session, Hogan took the opportunity to respond to questions, and repeatedly stressed that the changes proposed by his department are not set in stone and could change based on what he hears at the consultation sessions.
Speaking to reporters after the consultation session, Hogan said the current French immersion program worked well but only for a "small group of students."
Education Minister Bill Hogan said the program being proposed would be the same as French immersion, but in a different format. (Ed Hunter/CBC)
With the proposed program, all students would be able to have French language education in their later years, to the point of being at least at the conversational level, Hogan said.
"It is French immersion. It's just a different form," he said.
Asked about the evidence used to justify the proposed changes, Hogan said that will be presented later this year, alongside the feedback gathered during the public consultation sessions.
Virtual public consultations are set to be held on Jan. 31 and Feb. 2. An online survey is available until Feb. 3.
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french Immersion debate drew 500 people at the Delta in Fredericton!!!!
2.5K subscribers
In aggregate somewhere around 500 people have shown up at these meetings so far. So about 7/10ths of 1% of the parents of the school population if being generous.
How is this an issue, how is it that this tiny tiny minority is given such a large podium.
Seems to me this is nothing more that a tiny % or the population resisting change.
"bilingual anglophones, who account for just 15.8 per cent of all English-speaking New Brunswickers."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/french-language-decline-new-brunswick-statistics-canada-1.5077193#I guess by your reply, I can assume you did not bother to read the article.
"Figures in that report show that of 1,624 students who began French immersion in 2004, only 10 per cent finished Grade 12 with an "advanced" or better level of French. "
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/french-language-decline-new-brunswick-statistics-canada-1.5077193#Reply to Samual Johnston
Bills, budgets and banking: Saint John teacher preps students for the real world
Angela Leger says financial literacy is 'needed in our schools' more than ever before.
Angela Leger, at Forest Hills School in Saint John, teaches Grades 6, 7 and 8 students real-world skills in how to manage their money and plan for their financial future.
Growing up with parents who were entrepreneurs, Leger said she was taught financial stability and independence.
"Now, as a middle-school teacher, I see the need to instill these skills in my students," she told Information Morning Saint John.
One big game of life
Each grade level learns a different part of financial literacy, starting in Grade 6. Those students focus on saving, budgeting, spending and also giving back to the community. Leger says it's an introduction to what they'll do in Grade 8, which is focused on entrepreneurship.
Grade 8 students will create their own business and sell and create things, topping it off with an entrepreneurship fair in April.
Leger teaches the importance of learning to navigate income, outflow, expenses and debt beginning at a young age. (jridgewayphotography/Flickr via CC BY 2.0 SA)
Grade 7 students are immediately thrown into the world of bills, jobs and debt.
Leger calls it "the game of life." She said when the students walk into class, they're no longer 12 and 13 years old — they are aged-up to 18-25.
"They've graduated from high school … dropped into the world," she said, and "need to navigate it."
It begins with the students picking jobs, starting salaries and lifestyles out of a hat. Some of the lifestyle options include married, divorced, single or living with a roommate.
The job choices range from minimum wage to higher paying jobs, said Leger, but depending on the job, students may also face the challenge of student loan repayment.
"For this project, it's really important that students draw the lifestyles, the jobs, the salaries out of a hat, because students need to understand that life's a mystery, you never know what's going to happen," said Leger.
"Just because you want to be a veterinarian, doesn't mean that you're going to be a veterinarian. It takes a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication, patience, and also you need to have the finances to do so, especially in today's economy."
Financial literacy night
Leger said the students love the project because they know that the math they're learning is going to be useful to them in the future.
She said this type of math is already in the curriculum, but now, she's teaching the concepts in a different way so students understand how the skills can be applied.
And Leger isn't stopping with middle-schoolers. Forest Hills planned a financial literacy night for Thursday that would have students from Grade 3 and up, along with their parents. The event has been postponed until Monday because of storm-related school cancellations.
It's become a 'cashless society,' Leger says, and students now more than ever need to understand how to handle their finances. ((CBC))
In the school's theatre, the parent session will cover money tips, debt management, interest rates, setting up education funds and the importance of setting up a bank account at a young age.
The gym will have different stations set up for students that focus on spending, saving, budgeting and giving back to the community. Leger said the student portion will be interactive and will have students playing games and interacting with money.
"Financial literacy is needed in our schools more than ever before. We are becoming a cashless society and it shows. Students do not see money anymore. What they see is their adult swiping a card, and then it's instant gratification," she said.
"This is something that truly I hope that we really run with."
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With files from Information Morning Saint John
Teachers advised by NBTA to be careful about what they say at public hearings
Teachers' association says letter has been 'misconstrued' and was intended to encourage participation
The message was sent by email Monday to all members of the New Brunswick Teachers' Association.
"Teachers are free to publicly express their opinions on pedagogical issues," according to the letter, a copy of which was obtained by CBC News. "Factual opinions expressed in an objective and respectful manner are critical to authentic consultation."
But teachers were reminded that "the professional hat" of teacher can never be removed.
"Given this, we advise that teachers cannot speak in any specificity regarding their individual students, or their families, as this would be a breach of confidentiality."
Teachers were also cautioned against using "words or actions that would discredit or bring disrepute to themselves, our profession or the education system."
Doing so, it warned, "could result in sanctions from their employer or their professional association."
The letter said association officials were present as observers at the consultations held in Bathurst and Moncton.
"There will also be staff present at this week's planned consultations in Saint John, Fredericton and the upcoming online sessions," said the message.
Letter 'misconstrued'
When contacted on Tuesday, association president Connie Keating said the letter has been "misconstrued."
She said it was intended to "empower teachers who were concerned that they should not speak up" during consultations.
"The NBTA encourages teachers to continue to share their professional views in a respectful way while being mindful of their position of trust as they have at the first two consultations."
Keating said staff members attended the meeting "to be supportive of teachers and witness" the Department of Education's process."
She was not made available for an interview, as requested.
Proposed changes criticized
Last month, Education Minister Bill Hogan announced changes to the way French is taught. The changes mean more French for non-immersion students, but less than immersion students currently receive.
The planned changes have received a lot of criticism since first announced. In a live-streamed but scripted question-and-answer session last week, Hogan said changes to the program could still be made, based on feedback from several public sessions.
Around 300 people attended a session Monday in Moncton, where tempers flared and hecklers often disrupted the proceedings. About 20 people spoke during the two-hour event — none in support of the proposed changes.
People
lined up through the foyer and down the stairs at the Delta Beausejour
Hotel to attend the in-person consultation on Monday night in Moncton. (Maeve McFadden/CBC)
In early January, the teachers' association polled its members about the proposed program. Nearly 90 per cent of the 1,462 teachers who responded "do not believe the [Department of Education] is keeping them well informed about the changes," according to Monday's email sent to teachers.
Sixty-five per cent reported feeling "dismayed" by what the government is calling the "innovative immersion program." The email also included several quotes from teachers describing why they are dismayed, including:
- "We barely have time to cover everything we have to cover in English. How are we going to cover everything and then add in French as well?
- "How is EECD going to provide a balanced, well-thought-out curriculum for the new program in such a short period of time?"
- "I have been teaching 25 years in kindergarten this year. I should not at this point have to worry about what I will be teaching next year. Will I be forced to retire before I am financially or emotionally ready?"
- "It is awful, in my opinion, that we are not having conversations around the real issues … lack of EAs, lack of support services, lack of supply teachers, lack of teachers in general for that matter."
- "It is disheartening to be part of the continual "change" culture which is the Dept of Ed. I do believe that French Immersion has resulted in numerous bilingual people entering our workforce."
The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development was asked on Tuesday morning for comment about the letter from the teachers' association but had not provided one by publication time.
Two down, two to go
Two more in-person sessions are planned this week:
- Tuesday, Jan. 24, at the Delta Saint John.
- Wednesday, Jan. 25 at the Delta Fredericton.
Each will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
There will also be two virtual sessions, one on Jan. 31 and the other on Feb. 2.
The online survey will continue to be available until Feb. 3.
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