Random thoughts, observations, and opinions of a software engineer in corporate America.
Some Institutions Have No Capacity to Adapt
Published on July 12, 2004 By CS Guy In Current Events
Some education institutions are run by monkeys, I swear to God.

Yvan Tessier wants to enroll in an English language immersion program at the University of New Brunswick in Canada. To enroll you have to sign a pledge stating that you will only speak in English during the enrollment period. Yvan has a problem with that pledge.

Yvan is blind, and has a seeing eye dog, named Pavot. The problem is that Pavot is trained to respond to 17 commands in French. The school administration insisted that he sign a contract promising that "all communication with your guide dog will be exclusively in English."

The administration claims that allowing someone like Yvan to speak French in the immersion program would be lowering their standards to an unacceptable level.

"We cannot lower a standard," said Susan Mesheau, the university's director of public relations. "'OK, you're a nice guy, I'll lower it for you. You might not be as good an engineer. You might build bridges that people can fall off of, but that's OK.' That's silliness. Academic standards are academic standards."

I'm sorry, but I know of no one that ever died because someone pronounced an English word with a French accent.

Assclowns.

Comments
on Jul 12, 2004
Wow! You know, I'm all for maintaining standards but you have to let common sense prevail. They wouldn't be 'lowering a standard' because he's a nice guy. And there's a big difference between English students and engineers. Effective communication with his dog can mean the difference between life and death for the man. These guys are way out of line.

I teach Korean to American servicemembers and I'm a big fan of the immersion idea - use only Korean and don't allow English to become a crutch in the classroom. We make it mandatory for some of our students during their hourly breaks, too. I believe this program has merit, but if there was an emergency, I wouldn't expect the students to communicate it to me in Korean.

I'll second the 'Assclowns'!

on Jul 12, 2004
Okay, this is one of the dumbest things I've heard in a LONG time! I really don't think it's going to undermine the program to allow the man to communicate with his dog in the language his dog will understand.....idiots, total idiots!!!
on Jul 12, 2004
Welcome to the madness that is bilingualism. We see silly stuff like this every day in Canada and don't even blink.
on Jul 12, 2004
I agree with you CS.. I'm too tired or I'd say something more, maybe later I'll get on and leave you a long and confusing comment!!

You're so special!

Ashlee
on Jul 12, 2004
The sad thing is that this type of thinking is common in all bureacracies.

Dems da ruwles!