Managing a class with shouting, threats and insults is an automatic passport to suspension, at least if the wrongdoing is recorded and rebroadcast by all of Quebec’s media, then sparking widespread outrage. The Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac episode scandalized the whole of Quebec, sowing doubt in many minds: can teachers thus lose control and continue their merry way with impunity?
First, let’s be reassured: this unworthy method is not widespread and “Mme Chantal” surely has very few followers. The teachers of Quebec do a difficult job in thankless conditions, and if the management of the class must regularly cause them to heave many sighs, nothing indicates that the teaching professionals succumb to this type of shameless violence. Just because the case is exceptional does not mean that it does not raise questions that need to be addressed.
Class management and troop exhaustion. Managing a class is an art, a gift or a vocation, but the galloping increase of students in difficulty and with behavioral problems in the same class adds such a heaviness to this component of the task that it has become a real burden, even an impossible mission. The pleasure of the challenge no longer dominates, giving way to exhaustion. This obstacle not only exhausts the main interested parties, who are absent more and more and for a long time from work, but it directly affects the ability to teach.
The problem is not new, but the situation is getting worse. Education Minister Bernard Drainville’s idea of inviting “classroom helpers” in the form of daycare workers who know the school tunes, and the children, could prove THE breath of fresh air awaited by the teachers. A child is disorganized in class to the point of disrupting the teaching in progress? Classroom assistance is intended solely for this student, which allows the teacher to go about her main occupation. The method isn’t foolproof, but it can certainly alleviate some of the problem. Wish we could set it up.
Student ombudsman and professional order. The idea of a professional college of teachers intended to collect complaints from the public and to protect children invariably comes up in public discourse. The debate raged in the early 2000s, and even the Coalition avenir Québec had made it one of its promises before shelving this idea in 2022. In an education network where there are many emergencies, you have to choose your fights, and that one has no reason to take center stage.
The idea of creating a professional order has become more akin over time to a glaring desire to “professionalize” and enhance the work of female teachers, rather than to equip itself with a body for the protection of the public. Each time it was evaluated, it was concluded that it was not appropriate to create an order. We believe this is still the case.
However, are the mechanisms in place to oversee the profession sufficient, appropriate and effective? Huge question. In the case that made the headlines, a precious recording prompted a police investigation, another from the school services center and a third from the Ministry of Education, ensuring triple protection. But without recording, how would things have gone? This teacher had no doubt been around for a while. Could the system have prevented anything? Union protection prevented from building a file and cracking down? The school team could not consult together to demand action? The parents did not know where to turn without fear of reprisals?
Next September, a National Student Ombudsman will add an independent safety lock for those situations that manifestly violate students’ rights. This education ombudsman promises a “new, simplified, accessible and credible complaints process”, as the government is committed to. Its independence should add some credit to its action, but the keywords remain simplicity, accessibility and speed.
Shortage of staff. The context of a lack of staff in the schools will not embellish an already worrying picture in terms of difficult classroom management. The flagship of education is leaking: future teachers are hard to attract and keep on university benches; the teachers in place are absent more and more, exhausted; a large proportion of novices, estimated at at least 20%, leave the profession less than five years after entering it. It is extremely serious. Despite the temptation created by the urgency, it will absolutely be necessary to resist the trap of lowering the requirements. Classroom management in today’s demanding environment is not a skill that can be improvised, but learned.