Intervene as soon as possible
This research on the educational inequality of boys demonstrates once again the importance of early intervention with children at risk. The new pre-school education cycle program (4-year-old and 5-year-old kindergarten) is a good example of this. Although it aims to promote the overall development of all children, this program also has an excellent preventive component. It is in fact planned to implement preventive interventions by proposing universal and targeted activities to meet the specific needs of children at risk. It’s major. Above all, it is not a question of labeling the children, but rather of supporting them in the rhythm of their development by offering them what is best for their success.
Yolande Brunelle, former school principal, former preschool internship supervisor, Montreal
Let’s stop fighting nature
Could it be that by dint of wanting to equalize everything, we end up creating “inequalities”? It seems that boys naturally have strengths that girls don’t necessarily have. If certain intellectual capacities are specific to girls and certain others are more present in boys, why try to counter nature? An apple will never be an orange and vice versa. Some school systems, such as Finland’s, respect everyone’s abilities by trying to maximize them. A more personalized school program for everyone, boy or girl, would have better results and create less frustration. I believe that is what should be prioritized rather than always comparing what is different.
Nicole Lavoie
It all starts before 6 years old
This is exactly the observation that I make as a teacher at the primary level. By targeting students in difficulty, we act as a curative, we forget that at least six years have already passed, six years in which we could have intervened to ensure that children who arrive in preschool are more ready to face school challenges. which would not be so complicated if the children did not arrive so “poqués”. Yes, we have a long way to go as a society. It will take good arguments for our elected officials to act. Personally, I strongly believe in that of the dollar invested from birth which will save us several dollars in curative care as we are currently doing and which does not necessarily give the expected results.
Alain Samson
Hire more male teachers
Invest in education for boys. What has been done for women must also be given to men. Yes, working downstream at the early childhood level, but also recruiting more male primary teachers. We need more men in the primary sector. In my opinion, there were also more men in high school before than now. I would also be curious to know the percentage of male teachers over the years.
Claudette Castonguay, retired from education, Rimouski
Back to single-sex classes
I have an aunt of mine who taught elementary school in the 1950s and 1960s, when girls and boys were separated in class, even though they were in different schools. She said that from a pedagogical point of view, you cannot teach in the same way in a class of girls or boys. Their way of learning is different, she said. Maybe we should take a step back and go back to single-sex classes?
Conrad Lavoie
Let’s convert certain CEGEPs
When my son was in elementary school, I already noticed that boys had to enter a framework made for girls. There wasn’t much space for them. We must also admit that for the future, the CEGEP system is no longer an appropriate system. It would be urgent to convert some of these establishments into superb trade schools while others would keep a science vocation for those who wish to go to university. Young people, in this case a lot of boys, must be hooked by offering them concrete options immediately after secondary school, and above all promoting this path. Counselors could play a role in this enhancement.
Ginette Cadieux
Earlier maturity in girls
We are at a time when we so desire equality in everything that we come to find it abnormal that there are differences between boys and girls from the age of 5! As if there were no biological differences between the sexes, that girls’ brains did not mature earlier, that their sexual maturity (age of puberty) was not also earlier. To deny these biological differences, to look for environmental causes to explain them, is perhaps to miss a very simple reality. Boys and girls do not have the same maturity at the same age. Not taking it into account is perhaps missing the problem and, therefore, missing the solutions…
Joffre C. Allard.
Help and listening
So happy to read that we are interested in this essential subject. I have a little girl who, despite her learning difficulties, is progressing like a fish in water with a system tailor-made, it seems, on her evolutionary curve. My son ? The school seems totally unable to follow him in his journey. And I’m not talking about a rambunctious child here, just a child who prefers to laugh, to move and who sometimes expresses himself abruptly. I don’t make a gender divide, my daughter is the same! So why does my youngest not have access to the same benevolence as my daughter who preceded him? Categorized from an early age as “the little crisse” of the class, I fight to have his right to an empathic education recognized for him. Our little boys need help and listening! And it’s been a long time!
Joelle Mauffette