Marco would need occupational therapy to be able to hold his pencil, to control his gestures, to tolerate the sounds and movements around him, but there is no occupational therapist at the school. Marco will accumulate delays and frustrations, despite the benevolence and adaptations put in place by his teacher.
Margot would need a psychological evaluation so that we understand the reason why she throws things in class: anxiety, giftedness, autism? The waiting list at the service center is over two years. In the meantime, the teacher and the other students will suffer her attacks and try to see them coming, to reduce their frequency without knowing what causes them.
Coralie does not speak. She has selective mutism. The teacher does everything to make her feel good at school by going from one little attention to another. The school psychoeducator will not have time to see her because there are too many difficult and priority cases at school. Every day, the teacher will feel powerless in the face of this problem.
Carlos is in distress. It requires constant attention from the teacher. He lacks a lot of self-confidence and always avoids doing the tasks requested. Sometimes he hides, starts shouting and pushing others. He would need the help of a TES at all times. Unfortunately, there is only one for the whole school. He can see it for a few minutes a day. For the rest, the teacher will do her best, even if it disrupts the class several times a day.
Carolanne has a language disorder that prevents her from understanding what the teacher is saying. She takes the time to image everything so that Carolanne can follow. She will have help from the speech therapist 45 minutes a week because speech therapy needs have skyrocketed due to the pandemic. For the rest, she will do her best, and Carolanne will not be able to improve enough to keep up with the students in her group.
Gustave has trouble with letters. They get mixed up when he tries to read them. The remedial teacher will do rehabilitation with him, but only twice a week. She has almost 40 students to follow. The teacher will try to put in place all the adaptations to help her in her reading, but she will not be able to do so for everything.
The teacher must juggle all these problems at the same time, keeping a smile and helping the children progress. She has to get there, she gets paid for it and, in addition, she has two months of vacation. Every day, she will feel powerless in the face of the distress of her students. The most likely is that she will quit teaching or fall into burnout. The best pedagogue, even paid $400,000, will not be able to teach, to advance her students under these conditions.
If education were really the priority, we would provide the services that children need, directly at school and in sufficient quantity. I dream of a school that would allow all children to develop their full potential.
November 21-25, 2022 is Education Professionals Week. It is thanks to them, who are too few in the schools, that we can teach. Unfortunately, the state of the network and job insecurity have driven these essential professionals away. We bet that if we had competent professionals in adequate numbers to support teachers, to work with children who have needs, the shortage of teachers would be reduced. Teachers would have time and energy to do what they studied for: teaching and making stars appear in the eyes of their students.
Thank you, Martine, Karine, Jessica, Nathalie, Marie-Claude, Marie-Michèle, Aroua for helping me put stars in my students’ eyes.