Of course none of those comments offered any sort of rebuttal to the piece that I wrote, the premise being that hysteria by French language militants over English and Bill 101, are driving francophones and allophones towards English education.
Instead, the comments included the obligatory ad hominem attacks on myself for blogging anonymously, coupled with a rehash of the same-old/same-old hackneyed ideas and misleading statistics that are the bread and butter of the French language/sovereignist militant machine.
I'm not sure what these militants want to accomplish by posting their nonsense to our little blog, if they're not going to make any rational arguments, their hysterical anglophobia is mis-directed.
I guess I must have pushed a button that triggered a certain wave of frustration and anger which bubbled over. All I can say is, tough noogis...
There is nothing these militants hate worse than being called out on the facts, they are used to preaching to the converted. They pump out falsehoods and use misleading and doctored statistics as a matter of course and are outraged when these myths are challenged by skeptics.
Readers on this blog, I'm glad to say, are not the saps who lap up the lame hysterical mantra passed off as fact by the Mario Beaulieus and Louis Prefontaines of the militant sovereignist movement. We remain unimpressed and defiant. I myself have felt the sharp end of a criticism from readers and that's a good thing!
Readers have already offered some interesting critiques of the nonsense spouted by Mr. Prefontaine.
Congratualtions! 'Adski' , 'Appatchik' and 'Troy' and others! You have given me one less column to write!
BTW, Mr. Prefontaine, as adski pointed pointed out, I have already written about The Myth of the Overfinancing of English Universities.
I will however add this;
By claiming that Anglophone schools are over-financed, you intimate that francophone schools are under-financed.
This simply isn't true.
Francophone education is in a catastrophic state of decline that has nothing to do with anglos, ethnics or allophones, or financing, for that matter.
If anglophone institutions are over-financed (and they are not) it is because francophones just don't go to cegep and university in the same proportion as anglos and allos.
Those francophones and allophones who go to anglo institutions are numerically insignificant in comparison with the simple fact that francophones are just less interested in higher eduction.
Now I know this is hard to swallow, so let me back it up with facts.
First of all, francophones value education less than Anglophones.
Read a highly interesting report on this and other problems in the Quebec educational system.
It's hard to fill universities and cegeps when students don't finish high school. The high school dropout rate amongst francophones, especially boys has become a critical indictment of the francophone educational system.
In a letter to the Journal de Montreal former sovereignist Premier Jacques Parizeau was 'scandalized' by the poor performance of francophone high schoolers as compared to their anglophone counterparts.
"Premier Jacques Parizeau wrote a newspaper article drawing attention to the high dropout rate among among boys. He cited government statistics on high-school completion rates as of 2007, showing that in Montréal French-language public schools 63 percent of girls and only 49 percent of boys had graduated seven years after entering secondary studies. The comparable statistics in Montreal English- language public schools were 86 percent for girls and 79 percent for boys. “Why,” he asked, “are the results of [Quebec’s] English-language school system so much better than those of the French-language system?”
read; Dropouts: The Achilles' Heel of Canada's High-School SystemI wonder if Mr. Prefontaine will blame the poor performance of francophone high school students on the over-financing of the the English high school boards?
Finally one last sad piece of evidence, here's a bar graph indicating the different graduation rates from university:
Yup, Anglos earn almost 50% more university degrees than francophones, per capita. Allophones do even better!
I know it's sad and I know it's infuriating to have an anglo like myself bring these facts to light. There is a problem in the French educational system but it hasn't got anything to do with money or anglos.
To my francophone friends, I tell you that I take no pleasure in revealing this sad state of affairs.
Something has to be done pro-actively to get francophones back in school where they belong. Other studies show that when they do stay in university, they do just as well as anglophones.
Perpetuating myths and spreading falsehoods is what language militants do, blaming anglos and Canada for everything under the sun, instead of looking at the unvarnished truth that faces them in the mirror.
I know that in reaction to this piece, someone, somewhere is trying to spin the facts to prove otherwise, but the truth is, the Anglo education system is infinitely more successful, to the point that the very best francophone students want in.
Instead of trying to destroy the Anglo system, perhaps it would be better to try and emulate it, but alas it's easier to whine.
If you don't like my words, then debate them. If you can't or won't, well.... bring on the racist anti-English rants, we're all used to them. But I won't be printing any more of your crap.
PS. Note to Louis Prefontaine;
That was your one free shot.
Don't ever think that you can come around again and insult me like a moronic twit on my own blog.... If you want to slag me, do it on your own blog.
