Moe's Tavern: next target of breastfeeding lactivists

Moe Syzlak, you're next.

Will Moe find true love?

H&M breastfeeding protest

Reference link for Attawapiskat school children photo and YouTube link

If you wish to include a photo on your blog with a reference link to YouTube, here is a code I made:

[a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzLMuW1N50I][img border="0" width="220" alt="Attawapiskat" src="http://scottdiatribe.gluemeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/aki.jpg" height="165"/][/a]

Change [ ] to < >.

I hope it works. It took me some trial and errors to get it right. I'm not a code-master.

Look to the right to see a photo of the children from Attawapiskat. Click to get a YouTube link.

New Brunswick's French as a Second Language program

New Brunswick's education minister, Kelly Lamrock, presented at a news conference his public consultation results on French as a Second Language programming in English language schools.

The revised FSL program will consist of the following elements:

• Universal K-2: all children will learn together and will be introduced to French culture and language through a series of learning modules integrated into the curriculum (introduced to Grade 1 in January 2009, and to kindergarten and Grade 2 in the fall of 2009);
• Grade 3 immersion: a program beginning in Grade 3 and built on an early immersion methodology, with the majority of instruction in French (available in September 2010);
• English Prime: the non-immersion program for students in grades 3 through 5;
• Pre-Intensive French: a component of Grade 4 in the English Prime program in which students will have 150 minutes per week of French in blocks of 50 to 60 minutes (available September 2009);
• Intensive French: a component of Grade 5 in the English Prime program in which students will learn French through a literacy-based approach for about 70 per cent of their day over half the school year; the other half of the year will be conducted in English, with an accelerated curriculum and French instruction in concentrated blocks;
• Grade 6 immersion: a program beginning in Grade 6 and built on the late immersion methodology with the majority of instruction in French;
• English Prime with Post-Intensive French: the non-immersion program for students in grades 6 through 10 in which students take 200 minutes of French in two or three concentrated blocks each week in grades 6 through 8, and students will take one course per year in grades 9 and 10;
• Blended High School: the three programs (Grade 3 immersion, Grade 6 immersion and English Prime) will conclude at the end of Grade 10 with an oral proficiency test in French; all students who score intermediate or higher will be eligible to take FSL courses in any available subject in grades 11 and 12. Students who do not attain intermediate proficiency at Grade 10 will have course options to improve their French, and may be retested.

Mr. Lamrock's suggests his (de-marketing) proposal will improve literacy results and French language proficiency in more students than just those who are currently taking the French Immersion program.

There will be two points of entry for French Immersion: grades three and six. I will guess that most families who are interested in French Immersion will place their children in French Immersion in grade-three. I believe few children will start in grade-six. I am guessing that some parents will try to enroll their children in Francophone schools for grades one and two. Others may try French Immersion private schooling for two years is there is such an option. Private tutoring may also work.

Mr. Lamrock talked about his desire to see children together in the early grades so that all children can benefit from de-streaming. Students who may have difficulties may benefit with the presence of regular students. I suggest that in a streamed class of twenty primary students, there may be six students with special needs. From a teacher's point of view, each of those students is equivalent to 2.5 students. That is the equivalent amount of time a teacher needs to spend with special needs students compared to regular students. For a teacher, the whole class is equivalent to 29 students. If the number of special needs students gets reduced to four in a streamed class, then that teacher will be teaching an equivalent of 26 students. The teacher can spend a little more time with all the students.

Logistically, if New Brunswick's schools are under-served, then the grade one and two students who would have gone to a French Immersion school will now be going to a regular school that will be fully attended with all the classrooms used. Since the French Immersion schools may be under-serving the school community because of the lack of grade one and two classes, some of those schools can close down and merge with others thereby saving money for the provincial government.

Will Mr. Lamrock's improve French language learning for all students? Let's hope it does. I like how he calls French instruction in grade-four pre-intensive French. I would call that Core French instruction for 150 minutes per week. Mr. Lamrock hope that students in the regular classes will achieve intermediate French by the end of high school. Those in French Immersion will perform at an advanced level. I rate the intermediate level as a B1 or B2 on the European Language Portfolio scale. The advanced level would be at C1.

I will agree with Mr. Lamrock and describe the performance of students learning French in Core French classes as abysmal. Most of these students are exposed to French for only forty minutes within the classroom. Outside, it's all English. As a sidenote, I am not fond of the text booklets that students use such as Acti-vie. There is very little cultural insight presented in these booklets. The layout seems very generic. I don't get a sense that students have ownership with these booklets. That's just a pet-peeve of mine. Students need a sense of ownership in the Core French language program. The need to communicate and feel successful. One good program that I have heard is AIM that gets students to communicate using gestures. Students and their parents need to know that if they complete French by the end of secondary school that they will be able to communicate independently and functionally in French. Core French students also need opportunities to be exposed to French outside the classroom. These opportunities should not be just limited for French Immersion students.

The irony with discussion about streaming and de-streaming is that in Alberta, the public school boards in Calgary and Edmonton offer many different kinds of programs such as French Immersion, International Languages, and gender based schooling. There are other programs. The results are that their students perform better than those in New Brunswick. Schools are tailored to the students--not the other way around.

Someday, I hope students in New Brunswick and Ontario will be able to learn other languages starting in elementary school. Students can start French in the early grades. In grade-seven, they can start learning another language such as German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, and Korean for example. Let's broaden our horizons. Let's include French and other languages together.

Blogger Christian Conservative says, "Guelphites reject negative Liberal campaign." Which Guelphites?

Blogger Christian Conservative writes in blog about a letter-to-the-editor published in the Guelph Mercury. The letter writer scolds campaign supporters of the Liberal candidate for running a negative campaign against Conservative candidate, Gloria Kovach. Based on what Christian Conservative wrote, one would assume that the letter writer is just an average citizen who doesn't like Gloria Kovach being referred as a Harper "sock puppet."

Is the letter writer, Barry Osmond, just an average Guelphite or is he in some way or manner connected to the Conservative Party? You decide.

Here's a past dinner invitation from Barry "average citizen" Osmond and friend:

Chinese close DVD shops for the Olympics (in Toronto)

The Chinese government has ordered pirate DVD shops in Beijing to close from now until the end of the Olympic games. It doesn't look good if westerners see pirated DVD's being sold. However, I wonder if the Chinese government is extending its control beyond its borders when I see owners of a bunch of Toronto Chinese DVD shops close in midday, all at the same time, in a suburban shopping mall. About ten stores closed at the same time. Hmm.

I love Chinese shopping malls in Toronto. One mall has shops along corridors named mostly after lucky numerical streets. There's 8th Street, 18th Street, 28th Street, and Pirate Avenue. White people love Pirate Avenue. Ten DVD's for $20. Without Pirate Avenue, white people wouldn't bother going into a North American Chinese shopping mall. It's bad enough trying to get into the parking lot. It's worse trying to get out. The Chinese haven't figured out the Feng Shui of parking.

NP letter-to-the-editor: Khadr is being dealt with fairly

Letter writer, Vincent J. Curtis, wrote a letter-to-the-editor to the National Post claiming that Omar Khadr will receive a fair trial. He also wrote that detainees (I call prisoners) like Mr. Khadr cannot be tried for war crimes under U.S. domestic law because it is inadequate to deal with war crimes that involve foreign countries and foreign nationals. If that is the case, then Mr. Khadr should have been sent to the International Criminal Court in the Hague. That court could then decide on Mr. Khadr's case based on the their definitions of war crimes. It could also take into consideration Mr. Khadr's possible status as a child soldier.

Let's have a parade!

If the Japanese can have a penis parade and festival, then we should have one in Canada.

Here's some info from Wikipedia:

The Kanamara Matsuri (Festival of the Steel Phallus) is an annual Shinto fertility festival held in Kawasaki, Japan in spring. The exact dates vary: the main festivities fall on the first Sunday in April. The penis forms the central theme of the event that is reflected everywhere—in illustrations, candy, carved vegetables, decorations, and a mikoshi parade.

The Kanamara Matsuri is centered around a local penis-venerating shrine once popular among prostitutes who wished to pray for protection against sexually transmitted diseases. It is said that there are divine protections also in business prosperity and the clan's prosperity, easy delivery, marriage, and married couple harmony. There is also a legend of a demon that hid inside a young girl and castrated two young men on their wedding nights before a blacksmith fashioned an iron phallus to break the demon's teeth, leading to the enshrinement of the item.

Today, the festival is used to raise money for HIV research.

I do not suggest that we have a Toronto Penis Festival led by Mayor David Miller. We should have our own Kanamara Matsuri in a place like Wasaga "Prefecture" Beach to complement the Collingwood Elvis Festival. We could have a Wasaga Wang Walk where people can watch a multicultural array of phalluses (or phallii [I don't know my Latinese]) be carried by men of different sizes (I mean heights). Sorry ladies. You can have your own Vagina March the day before. The Wasaga Penis Festival can be a family affair where the mommies, daddies, and their children can rub a magic six metre long "Phal" for virility [some censored photos--not PG rated, maybe 14+].

I think my Cuss-O-Meter to the right is going to increase from 1.1% once this blog is posted.

Added: My Cuss-O-Meter didn't increase.

I can't believe I am writing this on a wet Sunday afternoon?