Dear politicians of the CAQ and other parties soon in the election campaign, allow me to remind you of what you already know, but sometimes forget: in health and education, there is no one size fits all. So even if the intentions of the government are good, children with weakened immune systems should have options other than going to class with a crowd of other students who do not have the same degree of vulnerability as them, and which, even if they are vaccinated, can transmit to them COVID-19 and various other viral diseases to which they are particularly vulnerable; moreover, they and their families must have a say in the decisions that concern them.
So let’s be creative and constructive, and look for solutions that have several different sizes, so that one of them can potentially truly meet their needs: these children could be offered online education, but they could also be offered, for example, completely individualized teaching given by people who are themselves immunocompromised, and who are therefore accustomed to taking special precautions — people who often cannot work with people who don’t take these precautions like them or in a large group — which would also give these people the chance to work, when otherwise they can’t always afford it.
If it suits the children and those teachers who would be in addition to the available faculty, instead of being individualized, the teaching of immunocompromised children could be given in very small classes of only two or three or four students at risk, always the same, whose families agree together on a level of additional precautions appropriate to the state of health of these children, whether it is a question of masks, distancing or other.
Get out of the rut
One could also think of a combination of the two. Some of the teaching could be done online, but some could be done outdoors or in special locations described below; otherwise, the children could study online, but benefit from special weekly compensatory activities in nature parks or other particularly well-ventilated interesting places, a large section of which would be exclusively reserved for them and their teachers in very small groups once or twice a week or more during teaching and activity sessions, which would solve the problem of availability of premises at the school.
Ideas for interesting airy places where to give lessons or hold compensatory social activities: go to school on small sailboats or other boats sailing on Lake Saint-Louis or Lac des Deux Montagnes, near the island of Montreal , or on other rivers in other regions, reserved only each time for a very small group (the captain, the teacher and one to three children), one to three times a week, depending on the availability of the captains : why not try to organize a flotilla of them with the help of retirees from boating clubs and others?
Would lessons given in well-ventilated old-fashioned train carriages or with windows completely open during the trip, like the little Charlevoix train, rolling very slowly, and reserved exclusively for these very small groups, wouldn’t that be stimulating? Courses in the orchards of farmers or others, ready to reserve their place for children at risk for the duration of the course, wouldn’t it be pleasant and safe? Or in museums that usually close in the fall, such as Fort Chambly, the fur museum in Lachine, etc. ?
Even easier: could we not reserve one or more places this year, such as the Hélène de Champlain restaurant, located on Île Notre-Dame, in a magnificent rural setting, and use it with its surroundings as classroom reserved for the most vulnerable by closing it to the rest of the public with financial compensation for the owners, so as to transform the deprivation of the most fragile into an opportunity to experience the best (including, by way of example in this case, the history of Quebec and its nature in the middle of the St. Lawrence River)?
Offer hope and space
Others will undoubtedly have much better ideas to offer: my point is that children’s social life is not just about tugging on the asphalt of a schoolyard for an hour a day with hundreds of other children, it can be improved by instructive pleasant experiences in very small groups of peers, and it is up to adults to see to it.
Worried about costs? What if we stopped pushing the vaccination of healthy adults and children who do not need it and invested the millions thus freed up in order instead to offer interesting childhoods to all those who have health problems and who really need it, while killing two birds with one stone by paying people who would be willing to help (immunocompromised teachers, pensioners with little money who are also captains of sailboats or motorboats, farmers who struggle to join the two ends, but who are still ready to welcome people to their orchards, artists looking for contracts who would be ready to play remotely on outdoor stages in history, science lessons, etc.)?
Let’s get out of the impasse and off the beaten track and bring back a little mutual aid and magic in the lives of a population that badly needs it by going to tap into what we have and are best: politicians of all parties soon in the election campaign, you are all capable of it. As you probably already know, there is satisfaction in managing to organize something beautiful, good and positive for the benefit of other people; these are achievements that remain with us and can be remembered with satisfaction in the future. People need inspiring positive leaders and people to help them catch their breath, relax and spread their wings. Let go of the all-or-nothing approach and give people hope and space: that’s what they need most.