Dany Turcotte, Ingrid Falaise, Pierre Curzi… Public figures accompanied the Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, on Sunday during the announcement of the Culture and Quebec Citizenship course, to express all the good things they think about it.
During this press conference, we also broadcast an ad where we see nearly a dozen ministers praising its merits.
The ad ends with an enthusiastic François Legault, who affirms that we “must pass on to our young people more knowledge about who we are as Quebecers, about our history, our culture, our way of living together”.
Do not adjust your devices.
We are witnessing the disappearance of the Ethics and Religious Culture (ECR) course. But it is also a real political marketing stunt on the theme of national pride.
The event, therefore, was excessively politicized.
Malaise: the school should not be used as a theater for the CAQ which is preparing its next electoral campaign.
On the other hand, that does not mean that the course will be politicized.
In fact, we do not yet know the content.
For this reason, we will have every advantage for the moment to be cautious and nuanced.
The fact is that we only unveiled the three axes of this course: culture, Quebec citizenship as well as dialogue and critical thinking.
We therefore only know the government’s intentions and not how they will translate into educational content. The drafting of the study program is underway and we want to implement it in certain schools from September 2022.
It is all the same already possible to state certain truths, while expressing hopes and exposing fears.
Starting by admitting that the ECR course was ripe for revision.
His weaknesses had been obvious for several years.
Religious culture took up a lot of space there, unlike doctrines like atheism. And we sometimes lavished a teaching on it where the critical look at religions was not always pronounced enough.
In addition, the manuals used were archaic, sometimes going “so far as to share prejudices against women or certain communities”, underlined the minister.
A revision was therefore necessary… but not necessarily a rupture.
The ECR course has been demonized over the past few years, but the point is, it was doing a useful job.
Thinking about ethical questions, for example, was one of his great strengths. As is the emphasis on learning to practice dialogue and the conditions that allow it.
ECR allowed both to develop the critical spirit of our young people and to offer them training aimed at the historical and cultural understanding of the religious phenomenon.
We understand that the entire ethical part will remain and will be updated. There is therefore no break on this point, and this is excellent news.
The importance of the focus on Quebec citizenship, which will include sexuality education – which has been difficult to fit since she returned to the program – and media education, is also commendable. .
However, of course, we do not try to instill in our children notions of chauvinism, to paraphrase Deputy Prime Minister Geneviève Guilbault. Narrow-mindedness has no place in this course, as Minister Roberge has demonstrated in explaining his objectives.
What is not clear is the place that the teaching of religious culture will occupy.
We understand that the CAQ is the party of the law on secularism. But secularism and the teaching of religious culture can go hand in hand.
“Obviously, when we are going to talk about the cultures of different societies, we will have to talk a little about the different religions,” the Minister explained to us in an interview. So much the better.
Now let’s see how the subject will be approached. We cannot understand today’s world or Quebec society and its contemporary challenges without understanding the religious fact. Education for pluralism remains fundamental.
To restrict the study of the religious phenomenon too much would be counterproductive. If we want to get along, we have to understand each other. This does not exclude a critical approach to religions.
One last wish, in closing: let’s avoid acting hastily.
In the opinion of various experts, this was one of the problems with ECR. We did not give the teachers time to appropriate the new subject. Or get textbooks designed in an exemplary fashion.
Will we do better this time?
For that, the Caquista government would have to favor a meticulous implementation of the new course rather than the desire to boast, during the next electoral campaign, of its rapid deployment.
What do you think? Express your opinion