The advantage with large families is that they allow us to measure changes over a long period of time. Isabelle Létourneau and her partner, Vincent Hubert, saw their children grow up for 18 years in the same public, French-speaking primary school in Montreal. At the fiesta organized at the end of each year, they saw the place given to French-speaking songs disappear. Every year at Christmas, a choir of primary school children learned and presented a song by Leclerc — like The Northern Train — or Vigneault. The budget has been compressed.
Going to drive and pick up their toddlers, the couple noticed that English, formerly absent outside of classes dedicated to it, had become a frequent tool of communication between children. They were told of two cases where children were excluded from an informal group of pupils in the playground because their knowledge of the English language was not strong enough. “We saw a sort of degradation,” they say, “and the link between language and culture seemed to have withered away. »
Readers of Duty, these parents noticed when reading my column “Anti-Quebec Identity” in February that they were not confused, and that they were not alone. With two other parents, they began looking for solutions and presented their school’s governing board with a list of actions aimed at “promoting French and Quebec culture.” The council adopted it.
Franco-responsibility
Among their proposals, that of borrowing a technique used for the valorization of the environment. Are we asking students to be eco-responsible? Let’s show them how to be Franco-responsible by appointing a teacher responsible for Franco-responsibility! They notice that a teacher is taking away points from students who use English among themselves in the class. Why not generalize the practice? (I add: apply it to other languages too?) They also note that it happens that when students address them in English, teachers respond in English. They want the opposite signal to be sent.
They want to document the anecdotal or widespread nature of what they call “linguistic bullying”, by inserting a question on this subject into the existing questionnaire on other forms of bullying at school, thus making it possible to obtain a portrait of the phenomenon and to follow its evolution from one year to the next.
Noting that, during special activities and at daycare, the music chosen by those in charge is predominantly English-speaking, they propose reversing the choice, and making the end-of-year fiesta a French-speaking fiesta, to link the French language to the notion of pleasure. Parents and children would be invited to sing a goodbye song, in French, for those aged 6e year, when they cross, as is already the custom, the guard of honor of the graduates.
The governing board also chose to use the Francophonie Month in March as an excuse to launch a poster competition earlier in the year illustrating a French-speaking expression, with the best winning books (in French). There is also talk of organizing a karaoke of Quebec songs and a chatterbox, an oratory competition adapted to different levels.
A student newspaper prepared by students and parents would be another way of using the language, and a French-speaking artist from the neighborhood could be invited to come and present their cultural production. The holiday choir would be back, with a song from the Quebec repertoire. National Patriots Day in May should no longer be just a public holiday, but rather an opportunity to explain the fight and the ideas of these precursors.
Celebrations showcase the cultural diversity of the school and should continue to do so. But we must ensure that Quebec culture has a special place there. “Students who were born here or have lived here for a long time are proud to introduce their part of the country to other students. We must not stop them,” write the parents.
Could some of Marvel’s superheroes give way to Quebec figures in the classroom? And to quote Louis Cyr, Maurice Richard…
The school’s principal, Daphnée Landry, presented the initiatives of her governing board this week to representatives of 25 other schools in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. I am told that the reception was enthusiastic. As if these actions responded to a real need.
A year of intensive Quebec?
They also observed a paradoxical phenomenon in 6e year, when students can opt for an intensive English semester. Only students of 5e who have good results in French and whose home language is not English can access it. As there are three classes per level, enough students qualify for two of the three classes of 6e are provided.
But this has the result of leaving in the remaining ordinary class those whose French quality is the lowest and those who speak English at home, therefore those who have culturally the least contact with Québécitude. Result: the emergence of English as a common language between students who are not intensive English speakers. Dilemma.
One solution, a lame one, is to close one of the intensive English classes so that more French speakers remain in the regular groups. Vincent Hubert has another, much better one (note to Bernard Drainville, for the following, take out your highlighter): transform the regular class into an intensive Quebec language and culture class. While their French-speaking friends are learning English, Sherlock Holmes and Taylor Swift, the others are diving into the adventures imagined by our children’s authors, discovering children’s shows from Télé-Québec, learning that there is radio and TV in French. I add: let’s take them to the sugar parties, to the Carnival. We could even organize a week for them in a family and a school in Trois-Rivières, Saint-Georges de Beauce or Saguenay. Bernard, think about it, it could be one of your great legacies!