Minister should give credit where it's due

Mirimichi Leader
Opinion--Published Friday June 6th, 2008

At the New Brunswick launch of the Royal Conservatory of Music's Learning Through the Arts, Minister Kelly Lamrock stated in his praise of the program that it shows, "... you can use music and art to create a more engaging classroom ... the kids are far more engaged than sitting still in a chair." Minister Lamrock claims he visits classes frequently. Has he not observed that elementary teachers already do this? Does he really think today's students are painfully sitting still in chairs and that this is the first proof that integrating singing and art into the larger curriculum is a good idea?

The Learning Through the Arts website at http://www.ltta.ca wisely makes no such claim; rather it states that the project's goal is to provide "...rigorous, structured curriculum" and lesson plans that supports teachers who are already a long way down this road.

Minister Lamrock needs to stop taking credit for the improvements teachers have already made long before he became minister.

A more productive use of his time would be to find some way to reverse the damage he will do to our province by eliminating all French instruction from the first five years of schooling.

Michelle Williams