In Ontario alone, there are approximately 4000 elementary schools, and about 900 secondary schools. Out of the almost 5000 schools we have, 350 elementary schools, and 105 secondary schools are French. Now don’t get me wrong, we are a very open and inclusive country, and we are lucky to have the option of bilingual education, although it was not always this way.
As Canada is an inclusive country, the education system offers a ton of different language courses for students to take across the country. However, even French, the nation’s second language, was not always offered. Regulation 17 is rarely talked about, however many French-speaking people hold it close to their hearts. It was a regulation of the Government of Ontario designed to limit instruction in French-language Catholic separate schools. The regulation was written by the Ministry of Education and was put into place in July 1912 by the Conservative government of premier James P. Whitney. It forbade teaching French beyond the second grade in all separate schools. In 1927, the government stopped enforcing the regulation, and repealed it in 1944. However, they say the measure caused irreparable damage to an entire generation by cutting them off from learning their own language, resulting in little knowledge of how to read or write, so parents opted to send their children to English schools. Public funding wasn’t even offered to French schools until the late 1960s.
Most of our generation nowadays sees bilingual education as an advantage. People say it leads to an enriched set of experiences, a new way of seeing the world, and no less importantly, bilingual education is associated with reduced rates of dementia. Especially in Canada, being able to speak two or more languages opens doors all around you, certainly since our country has two primary languages.
Many important careers, such as translating, publishing, tour guides and flight attendants, require you to read, write, speak and understand French. The big kicker here is the Canadian government: to work in any position for the Canadian government, you need to be fluent in French.
Now I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I’d say that bilingual education would come in handy right about now, don’t you think?
Of course, there are always downsides. As I explained in the beginning, there is a large difference in the number of French schools in Ontario versus English schools, and bilingual education is not offered in very many schools, so you may have to go a distance to access it. Furthermore, learning a whole other language can be quite difficult. Specifically, many adults find it quite difficult and often give up.
You may wonder why young kids can pick up on new languages so fast, and it’s because of brain elasticity in children, it makes it much easier for a child to learn a new language. From as early as the teenage years, it can be much more difficult to take in something new. Another big issue is many cannot afford bilingual education as it is quite costly in some places. Finally, the quality of education may not be as good, since there is a minority of bilingual educators.
It is quite possible that a person receives a mediocre education in multiple languages, rather than high-level education in a single language.
As I mentioned, one of the great advantages of being bilingual is the science behind it. Psychology researchers from York provide evidence that bilingualism can delay symptoms of dementia. They found that bilingualism provides the brain with greater cognitive reserve, delaying onset of symptoms. Their study is believed to be the first to investigate conversion times from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s disease in monolingual and bilingual patients. But further studies show that this great advantage can also be a great downfall.
“Although bilingualism delays the onset of symptoms, once diagnosed, the decline to full-blown Alzheimer’s disease is much faster in bilingual people than in monolingual people because the disease is actually more severe.” says Bialystok, one of York’s researchers.
Bilingual education has many advantages, as well as disadvantages. When talking about bilingual education with the people around you, you may not always hear both sides. As you’ve seen, it may not be for everyone, however from personal experience, I suggest giving it a shot, because you never know how it might affect your life, and the opportunities it may bring.
Image credits: Nikhita S and CDC