If it takes an entire village to raise a child, it takes an entire school for a student to succeed… Indeed, there are so many actors that a child will encounter on his way during his school day, actors who will all contribute to their educational success and well-being at school.
Every morning, the janitor ensures that the entrance to the school is passable. Management and secretary ensure that everyone is present in class. The secretary calls home to find out why little Rémi is not there that day.
In the corridors, while the teachers welcome their students, the special education teacher makes her rounds to ensure that there are no small incidents that would get the day off to a bad start. In her office, the psychoeducator already meets a teacher with the assistant principal in order to put in place an action plan for little Elsa who no longer wants to go into her class.
A little further on, the speech therapist co-leads a communication activity with a teacher. The remedial teacher comes to pick up a group of three students to prepare them for a task which will take place at the end of the morning in the class. Meanwhile, management is adding to its planned tasks a search for funding to purchase computers for students who have difficulty with written language.
At the daycare, after welcoming the students, the team meets to reorganize the lunch hour, because there is a shortage of staff for all the groups, while trying to maintain extracurricular activities.
Desertion
You might think that everything is fine…or almost. However, no, all is not well in the world of education. The main symptom? The growing desertion, both among teachers and among all the staff named above, which aggravates the current labor shortage.
This is not about listing problems, but rather looking for solutions. So let’s look at what the government is offering us. At least, this is what we hear when he speaks through the media. The government is proposing to relieve the burden on teachers by adding help to the classroom (for example, daycare educators could thus supplement their days). Even if this proposal may indeed be one solution among others, we are surprised to see that, for the moment, it seems to be the only one put forward.
How can we not feel frustrated, even outraged, by the fact that there is so little mention of the support that a special education technician, a speech therapist, a psychoeducator, a psychologist, a remedial teacher, to name just a few, could provide? How is it that these services, although considered essential by both teachers and parents, are never mentioned?
The teacher does not only need help, he needs support in his understanding and in resolving the challenges encountered. Wouldn’t it be precisely the moment to revalorize these professions, to give them conditions of exercise which would make them more effective? Let us also stop constantly invoking the shortage of professionals even though they are being trained in greater numbers. It is more precisely an exodus that is at issue.
Synergy
Take the example of the school speech therapist. Through her training, she is at the crossroads of language and learning. And we know that communicative skills are essential to success.
Contribute to helping a student express themselves and understand in order to learn better, in order to subsequently become an autonomous citizen, not dependent on support services, equipped with a critical mind, and support the teacher in the various possible adaptations aimed at to facilitate learning, this is what the speech therapist does, in synergy of course with partners in their community. And we could cite other examples. A young person struggling with anxiety or behavioral problems will not be available to learn. This is where a psychoeducator comes into play to support the student and those around him. In a secondary school, the psychologist will follow a student to assess the suicidal risk and assure him of a caring presence.
We know that illiteracy is costly to a society. Let us not neglect the importance of professionals who, with the entire world of education, could work to create a world where everyone thinks, writes and reads, a world where everyone in turn contributes positively to life in Company.
*School speech therapists co-signatories of this letter: Chloé Arshagouni, Florence Augustin, Alexia Ballard, Cécile Barraud, Natacha Beausoleil, Clara Becerra, Ouarda Ben lalli, Christine Bédard, Anne-Julie Boyd, Madeleine Brelle, Jeanne Burger, Marie-Laure Burté, Caroline Chabot, Jessie Chamberland, Véronique Chantal, Catherine Chevalier, Clémentine Cloutier, Anne Corbeil, Julie Charlotte Courant, Claire Cuisnier, Agnès Dartiailh, Pascale David, Camille D’Anjou, Sophie De Broeck, Marie-Jeanne Descôteaux, Florence Devoyau-Lanctôt, Anne Donckervolcke, Joëlle Doucet, Bianca Ducas-Pouliot, Sarah Duguay St-Pierre, Mathilde Dupas, Sylvie Dupéré, Wadad El-Hashash, Sarah Fovero, Marie Froment, Alice Gagnon, Audréanne Garand, Aline Garcin, Maud Gauthier, France Giraudet, Lisa Maria Gomez Diaz, Adèle Guérard-Lakrout, Delphine Guitton, Elizabeth Gingras, Apolline Gros-Martial, Charlotte Guillet, Marie Jeanroy, Gabrielle Lacasse, Julie Lamalice, Céline Larfeuil, Catherine Lebel, Stéphanie Leblanc, Nastassia Marcogliese Checchin, Coralie Mazzella, Catherine Murray, Geneviève Naud, Mélanie Orellana, Francis Paquet, Claire Pélabon, Laurence Petitjean, Marie-Eve Picard, Marie-Claude Pigeon, José Pouliot, Emmanuelle Léger-Provost, Léa Rafih, Lina Réda, Mathilde Ronfard, Christine Rousseau, Emmanuelle Saguez, Marie- Anne Sarrazin, Esther Sauv, Jessica Sauvé-Dupont, Ariane Simoncelli-Bourque, Isabelle St-Amour, Clara St-Jacques, Louise Sylvestre, Sandrine Théroux-Morin, Jacynthe Toupin, Christina Thompson, Céline Varin, Florence Van Overmeire, Lilian Villarreal, Caroline Vinet. School psychoeducators co-signatories: Carmela Avvampato, Eve Bertodli, Elisabeth Dupras, Catherine Dupuis, Geneviève Jutras, Chanelle Lazure, Camille Souric, Joana Pereire-Lima, Mylène Laforge, Lyne Lavigne.