Would you be comfortable with your child’s teacher making videos on TikTok? Following a report published Thursday morning on teacher influencers, The Press has received many testimonies from parents. And they do not all have the same opinion on the matter.
Shortage in mind
” [Mélanie, alias Smarties] “She ran my children’s day camp. She was very professional,” says Véronique Lacombe, mother of two elementary school-aged children in Laval.
Read the file “Teachers… and influencers”
THURSDAY, The Press revealed that a young substitute teacher had almost been unable to teach in Laval public schools. Videos she posted on the social network were allegedly unprofessional, according to her management. Other cases of teachers were also presented in our report.
“I can’t believe we’re depriving ourselves of teachers in the midst of a labour shortage,” adds Mr.me Lacombe.
“I don’t understand the goal”
For his part, if Dany Gascon, father of two, had learned that the kindergarten teacher of one of his children was creating content on TikTok, he would have brought up the subject.
“I would have had no choice but to tell him that I don’t understand the objective,” he explains.
The file of The Press revealed that some of the teachers cited had not informed their employers of their activities on the social network.
“The fact that school management is not aware of this, despite themselves, that these teachers have these practices, makes me question myself a lot,” admits Mr. Gascon, who rarely uses social networks.
Seeing it directly on the social network, I would have been angry, I think.
Dany Gascon, father of two children
More problematic, he says, are cases where children are part of the video. Why? They may be aware of the interaction between the teacher and his cell phone.
“You separate yourself from what you are experiencing in this group to interact with something else. I don’t understand that, I find it a lack of judgment,” he says.
And what about cell phones?
For Eric Parent, father of three children in high school, one argument is completely left out of the discussion.
“To use [un cellulaire dans] “You can go to class during your lunch hour to make videos, but to ban children from doing so makes no sense,” he laments.
Since December 31, cell phones have been banned in classrooms in all public schools in Quebec, unless they are used for educational purposes.
A text published in The Press on May 13th reported on the impact of this directive in Quebec schools, a few months after its implementation. Conclusion: it is, finally, the responsibility of teachers to enforce the rules of telephone use.
Read the article “Cell phones in class: the ban has not changed much, say teachers”
Being exposed to teachers posting content in class makes it difficult for Mr. Parent when he explains to his children that rules must be followed.
“I think that if we want to be masters of our class, we have to set a good example,” he says.
“It doesn’t bother me at all.”
Annie Paquette, mother of a 5-year-old, disagrees. She doesn’t mind teachers being on TikTok, as long as they don’t show the children’s faces.
“OK, we can hear them, but even I, if it was my child’s teacher, with all the children talking, I wouldn’t be able to identify mine,” she says.
“I would even encourage him and give him ideas,” she jokes.
If she’s having fun doing this, who am I to ask her to stop?
Annie Paquette
As a user of the platform herself, she frequently sees content published by professional teachers.
“I follow Sylvain Duclos on TikTok, I think he’s really fun!” says M.me Paquette, referring to one of the teachers cited in the file of The Presswho makes educational videos about the application.
Motivation source
Louis-Philippe Guy is the parent of a second-year high school student. One of his son’s teachers, Samuel Paradis, regularly posts videos on TikTok.
“At the beginning of the year, I was definitely curious and went to his channel to see what he was posting,” he reveals.
But the parent was quickly won over by the teacher’s humor and approach.
It motivated [mon fils]he identified a lot with his teacher, and it was a great year […]. We even saw his grades go up!
Louis-Philippe Guy
He stresses that trust would be completely lost with the teacher if the latter made inappropriate remarks. “And that’s true in all professions!” he adds.
Mr. Guy, also a radio host, welcomed the teacher to his show on Wednesday to discuss the issue.
“As Samuel said, I think the important thing is to always speak with the awareness that it is possible that it is a student who is listening to the video,” he summarizes.
The Quebec Federation of Parents’ Committees had not received any comments or complaints on this issue as of late Thursday, following the article.