Window open on a charming little neighborhood school, on Le Plateau-Mont-Royal. Each year, in May, we pay tribute to the talents of the students. An artistic exhibition is set up for a week. An incalculable number of hours invested by the teachers, the educators, the super concierge, the director, the parents, to make our opening evening a success.
This is the unifying event to celebrate the projects carried out in class throughout the school year. The visual arts teacher exploited the artist Riopelle in her classes. Also, from kindergarten to 6e year, the children discovered, among other things, the Aboriginal art of Norval Morrisseau, the poetry of Marie-Andrée Arsenault, the youth album of Fred Pellerin, the visual artist Anouk Looten, the artist Sonia Haberstich.
Once again, our Red Carpet event was a great success. The students had their eyes shining with pride in front of their parents and peers to see their achievements celebrated. A big party that is well taken, at the end of the year. All school staff needed praise and thanks from parents for all the time invested in the projects. A break in our daily life which is becoming heavier and heavier.
Evil in my profession
These days, I have a hard time with my profession. Again. The image of teachers is soiled, tarnished. We are watched, judged, singled out as if we were doing our job badly.
Would the idea of creating a National Institute of Excellence be to give the impression of doing something to intervene with teachers who freak out in class, who lack respect for their students, who misbehave sexual? A major cabinet reshuffle to reach a minimal number of teachers?
The big problem in education is not there. More mandatory training for teachers to improve the quality of French and teaching in our schools? Neither does that. No idea of the reality in the schools; training, we can have it every year, we try to be able to participate in it, but the lack of substitutes prevents us from going.
So what could possibly make new teachers want to continue their careers in schools, that the number of teachers on sick leave keeps rising? Certainly not the impression that they want to monitor us, evaluate us. It’s not the teachers, the problem is the system in place. Groups with too many children, students in difficulty integrated into classes without the necessary support, unfilled professional positions in our schools, banks of empty substitutes, refusals to work four days a week by personal choice or early retirement.
The wage increase requested in the negotiations is a solution to the glaring lack of qualified personnel in our schools. Access to the teaching profession is not very attractive in terms of salary for newcomers. We only hear how difficult, demanding, tiring it is to be a teacher. And that’s true.
While waiting for a teachers’ strike to assert our point of view, I will try to survive the final sprint at the end of the year. The last miles before the holidays, including a few weeks of well-deserved recovery. I can’t wait to set sail (a nod here to our theme at school this year). Arriving in May, excitement sets in, projects in mind for a promising summer. Take back the upper hand, find my energy, my calm, my good mood, my real personality sometimes camouflaged when arriving home in the evening.