Is French Immersion for all children?
French immersion has sometimes been criticized as an elitist program, because, among other reasons, children enrolled in this program tended to come from families with high incomes and the educational level of parents tended to be above average. This criticism may have been valid when the French immersion program began. However, with hundreds of thousands of students in the program, if this was ever true it is not the case today. Studies have shown that there is no reason why immersion programs should not be suitable for any child. Of course, children with above average academic abilities generally have an advantage in most forms of learning, particularly, in the case of immersion programs, in the development of reading and writing skills. High academic ability, however, is not related to performance in French speaking skills. By the same token, children with learning difficulties will experience some problems in trying to cope with the French immersion curriculum — the same problems
