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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1984-02-15, Page 21.025 Hargrieve Rd., Unit 3, London, Ontario N6E 1 P7 Phone: (519) 686-•1970 After Hours: 657-0390 THIS ORIGINAL DOCUMEN,,F .I'S 'IN VERY POOR CONDITION 4 a Luclm*ow Sentlinel, Wednesday! FebIry 15, 1954-1 • �mrniUee for learn ing wan ts Fre nclz imme rs v p rogra By Acne Nsrejko Parents of elementary school children, or parents with children about toenter school, _ could be asked to make a big decision in the near future. The first meeting for the French immer- " sion pro, yam for Goderich ' and surrounding ' ,as- Id at ictoria School February .6, special gue t speaker. -Debra Whale. Whale is the 'president of- Am Ontar4o, :. 'Parents for : French, and with the help . of another member from the group, Dianne Gering, they assisted Nicky Sully and Joanne Jasper in answering questions from Concerned' parents. ° Gering and Whale were able to present the large audience with two points of view on the immersion program. Gering is. from Toronto and does not speak a word of French but has children in .the. programa Whale is from rural Aylmer, has two sons . in the Guess temperatures We had a terrific response -to last week's quiz asking pleople to phone in their guess about the. temperature on the coldest night on record 50 years ago: Several . Sentinel readers' guessed the temperature was - -34 degrees farenheit which is the temperature recorded by the local'meterologist at the time. Jackie Wilson of Lucknow was, the first to guess. correctly. She placed her guess in the Sentinel, letter box Wednesday night.. Guessesranged from -34 degrees faren- heit to -55 degrees farenheit. Fifteen readers phoned in to participate in the quiz and . we appreciate their response. Mary Buckton remembers it being -40 F. and a plate glass window broke. Jim Aitchison remembers it being -48 F and he had his face frozen walking home from school. Wes Young says it was -58 F in , Teeswater at the north end of town by the - river. Eldon Lowry remembers it being -47 F in Lucknow and` -4 F' in Ripley. y.µ immersion program and h#s tried to kee up to them by learning somerenoh. The Canadian Parents for French grou was started in March of 1977 by Keith Spicer and 35 parents. Now 'there are 14,000 members across Canada. The full itnmersion program! consists of only Frenchbeing taught, in, kindergarten through to' grade two. "In grade three the stuotents will be taught <40 minutes' in English and hby the they reach grade eight, they will be taught SO per cent in English and 5Q per cent in French. "Whale feels that kindergarten is the best grade for students to start learning Frenc because "they.. lack prejudice. They don look upon learning another language the same way adults .do. They simply`don't have the.,peerressure." _--eke group showed a CBC documentary., from The Journal. It stated that public school. enrollmentwas down .but the French. immersion program was `growing by leaps and bounds". It also said that younger children can handle two or three' language at one time. Interviewed ,on the documentary were graduates .of . the first immersion program. One et them said that it was "very natural" to pick up; the two languages. During the .question, and answer period on onday, many parents expressed- their c ncern for their .children's ability to pick up th English language if „theY _ were taught to 'ally in ,French. W. hale :and Gyring bat3� po nted'out that research has 'shown, that the lin'' ersion . program works, and there :has n ver been any'researeh to .prove it doesn't ork. "They learn to transfer' their abilities.i'd lso like to stress that this is a program for verage 'child en, they. don't ,have to be .,it: '_ept." 4/Another parentwas concerned about to the..kiuxon County School Board wit Another question raised was since th an English speaking community, why theyleaning towards the French langu;, Whale's: reply was that speaking Frena an _advantage for the children in. opportunities as many government job ask for the: applicants to be. bilingual, "This is not a program anyone want forcdown your throats, the choice is tilt, and -We . feel it should be there, st Gering, The pdroe' of -"they ,nieeting' was determine where :the .interest lies in surrounding areas so that the ;local Com: tee for Learning Opportunities can go.. helping his: child. with home work. Whales specific lumber . of `; parents who pointed out the =fact.thatthey are taught very slowly at first, and. if the parent put forth a little' effort, they could learn along with the child. m "As far as math goes, the numbers are, all the same so you can help in that, but when it comes .to speeches, the, teacher doesn't want yo'u to write the speech for the child anyhow," she explained: interested inthe progiram , A questionnaire 'was handed out at meeting . and •everyone in attendance asked: 'to fill it .. out and leave with Committee so they could determine whet or not there are enough interested pare ,for a .French Immersion program to started "this September. Voice for antiepactes busy�s�rg :The Wingham Voice for Life helds its monthly meeting and is looking forward to a busy schedule of events in the . spring. The highlight will be the annual : dinner, to be held in . May. This will be a,. decennial celebration and Dr. dart Besner, a .physicist at Sir Wilfred Laurier University, will be the guest speaker. An excellent "meal is being planned. by the ladies of the Presbyterian church and invitations will be sent to local clergy, dignitaries and Members of Parlia- ment. r As ;part of a nation wide advertising campaign, bill boards will be erected in the area. The captain will be: Choose Life: l Abortion Kills. The group yillbe continuing.' television ads, v hi ii feature , Doctors; TheLuckii�Skatng PRESENTS Bernard Nathanson, an ex -abortionist and fetologist: The film, Assignment Life, may also be shown soon. This film explores both sides of the abortion issue. The television ads emphasize the humanity of the' unborn. The group's : Education secretary, Sally Campeau, will speak at a meeting of the Salvation Army on February 20. Wherever possible," pamphlets. are made available to students doing projects. The pamphlets set forth the unfortunate social . effects of abortion. A new pamphlet, entitled, Start- ling Findings, deals with research intohow quickly unborn babies 'develop,' not only physically but also psychologically. "Why is a .lavv neededto protect t unborn?"' This :question •i* aske said Sally Campeau. In answer, she said tl the law is an educator; what becomes lei becomes .permissible. Thus, when a socia permits abortion, ,the lives of thousdands children are unprotected and may destroyed. Unborn children, as members the human family, need and must ha. protection of the law. Sign in a factory: `L'ookaliye. You can '1 replaced by a 'button"a One thing about inflation you get to j in a more expensive neig ibourhood with moving ;- "1 ? TO SAVE. SALE ENDS FEB. 18TH Many More In -Store Special SPRING STOCK ARRIVING DAILY ARENA 7:ooam. ADMISSION ADULTS $2.00 Public School $1.50 Pre-Schoolers Free.