Well, the eclipse is over. More schools should have been opened.
Now that we can move on, what will the Legault government do about the screen crisis?
Because there is a crisis.
Depression, isolation, suicidal thoughts, attention problems, the list of ailments is known.
Children pushed to suicide, others intimidated from the age of 6, the mental health crisis is rife among our young people.
Even the INSPQ argues that ultimately screens in class “do not provide any added value”, or even that they are downright harmful.
It’s time to take action.
Archive photo QMI Agency, Julia McKay/Whig-Standard
From Sweden to Ontario
Already, Sweden, always cited as an example, has swapped screens for good old notebooks and pencils.
The least the Minister of Education could do is announce a project with the promise of a new policy within a year.
Above all, Quebec should follow in the footsteps of the Ontario school boards which have filed a $4 billion lawsuit against Meta, Snapchat and TikTok.
Because we must not be fooled, these platforms are well aware of the deleterious effects they have on our young people. They studied them, documented them.
They know that their algorithms create dependence, that the illusion of connection leads to isolation, that adrenaline harms young people’s ability to concentrate and self-regulate.
- Listen to the Latraverse-Bock-Côté meeting with Emmanuelle Latraverse via QUB :
And while teachers are tearing their hair out because their classes are unmanageable, these platforms are taking in the jackpot.
According to a study by Harvard University, they pocketed $11 billion in profits in the United States in 2022 on the backs of teenagers.
Isn’t a pursuit against such giants lost in advance?
Who knows? The first lawsuit against tobacco companies took place in 1958!
One thing is certain, only financial risk forces these giants to bend.
Quebec has always prided itself on being avant-garde, at the moment, on this front, it is already well behind.