Choosing dual immersion

When I went to the parent information night for the immersion program I was a little bewildered. Admission to the program is based on a lottery. The children who would routinely go to the school are given priority, if there are any left over spots they go to children from different schools.  Don wasn't sold on the program because he didn't like the idea of not being able to help Sean with his homework.

The principal did an excellent job of "selling" the program. She said they knew parents would not be able to help their children with Chinese homework. She went through all the advantages of the program which were many. I sat there thinking "so the kids who don't get in to this program are getting cheated." She ended the presentation with "but all the students get an excellent education including are monolingual children." Hmm, I wasn't feeling it. The dual immersion sounded like a superior education and now that I was "sold" I was going to be seriously annoyed if Sean didn't get in the program. I don't see how it can be considered equal. In Utah Kindergarten is only half day. The kids in the dual immersion program stay for 3/4 day. They are starting off with more educational opportunities. Sean's been going to the Montessori school since he was two so it wasn't really about the hours I could have kept him in private school and had him full time, it was the fact that not all kids are being treated equally.

Since Sean got accepted I've spent a lot of time researching dual immersion programs. I couldn't understand why they didn't just give every kid in the school an hour of Chinese per day and then no one would be excluded. The answer is the premise for dual immersion is to allow the children to become truly bilingual.

Found this great website about dual immersion programs.

I wondered about attrition from dual immersion programs. The principal told parents that if they planned on moving during their children's elementary years not to apply for the program. Still, there has to be attrition. I found an article, a very long article about attrition. It said that by high school the attrition rate can be over 90%. It sited numerous reasons. The programs are designed to go through elementary school, in Jr High students may take AP Chinese courses and then choose if they want to continue in High School. Since the kindergartner's have no idea what their interest are going to be in High School the decision to enter a dual immersion program is based solely on the parents desire. Many students leave the program for the International Baccalaureate. I guess it's why I make Sean take piano lessons. If he decides when he is older he doesn't want to play the piano that will be his choice. The window of opportunity for dual immersion is limited. If he decided in second grade he wants to be in the dual immersion program it's too late, the window is closed.