NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #16/NN_1992_16.iso/spool/can/general/3429

Internet Message Format | 1992-07-25 | 3.7 KB

Xref: sparky can.general:3429 can.politics:5396
Newsgroups: can.general,can.politics
Path: sparky!uunet!uunet.ca!canrem!telly!evan
From: [e-mail] (Evan Leibovitch)
Subject: Re: RACISM???/Access to English schools
Organization: Somewhere just far enough out of Toronto
Distribution: can
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 03:41:55 GMT
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
References: <12330@audetf> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Lines: 67

In article <[e-mail]>
    [e-mail] (Stephane Boucher) writes:

>>>>>> On 22 Jul 92 14:50:16 GMT, [e-mail] (I) said:

>  > In an area where there is a large enough French
>  > population to justify its own school, there should be
>  > one. Ditto for English in Quebec.
>
>Evan, tell me, what is "large enough" (aka "where number
>warrants"). I'm still looking for an explanation, but nobody
>will give me one.

OK, I'll do my best. The term is inexact, because it depends on the
concentration, the financial health, and the determination of the group
involved to achieve the desired services.

What I am going on is only my own conjecture, based on some personal
experiences. I am part of a small Jewish community in Brampton, Ontario,
and "where numbers warrant" was certainly a factor when determining the
level of education our children could achieve in learning Hebrew.
(Yes, it's not French, and there are a dozen other reasons why this
example isn't exactly applicable to provision of French services. But I
believe that I owe you at least an attempt of an explanation of the idea
of "whwre numbers warrant". I am sure there are bureaucrats in Queen's
Park that have researched the concept to death.)

When we had only a few children of school age, we had a private tutor
holding classes in one of the child's homes.

When we had 20 or so children,  we realized we had a genuine community.
We organized a genuine curriculum, contacted central Jewish authorities
about how other small groups had accomplished this, rented a classroom
from the school board, and brought in extra teachers to deal with
different age and fluency levels.

When we had 50 or more, we had a principle, who had applied (and
received) provincial subsidies under the Heritage Language program. We
had negotiated with the local school board to allow our "school" (by now
it had its own principal, curriculum committee and library) to share
some of its unused capacity, and the local school board earned revenue
from the (subsidized) rent we paid.

You may not see the pattern, and I'm quite sure I'm not explaining this
well. But to me "where numbers warrant" means that the higher the
concentration of (a specific culture group) in a geographic area, the
cheaper (and thus, easier) it is per person to provide services.
But even on a small level, the services can be provided, if not as good
as you'd like. You're not going to have much of a French library if
there are only four kids in the school.

>If nobody knows what "large enough" is, then I agree that
>the ONLY reason why their aren't French schools in certain
>area is because the French population is not "large
>enough"...

I'm very open to interpretation of exactly how many Francophones in an
area constitutes enough to form a class/school/'family' of schools.
It should be uniform regarding how Quebec treats andglophones, and how
TROC treats francophones. And whereever possible, it should err on the
side of being too liberal with its admissions rather than too
restrictive.

--
 Evan Leibovitch, Sound Software Ltd., located in beautiful Brampton, Ontario
         [e-mail] / uunet!utzoo!telly!evan / [phone]
   Said Captain Jean-Luc Picard to the tailor at his machine: "Make it sew!"