Young CAQ members are demanding the return of civic-mindedness and discipline in Quebec schools. It is time, they say, to “sound the end of recess for violent and bullying students.” Those who oppose this proposal, please raise your hand.
Nobody? Perfect, I’ll continue. “Those who break the rules, disrupt the class or intimidate their classmates must be brought to heel,” argue the young caquistes.
Once again, it is difficult to argue against such a statement. No one is against virtue, nor against the return of civility in the classroom. The only thing left to wonder is: isn’t reprimanding violent and bullying students already done in schools?
This question should be answered in the affirmative in all circumstances. If the answer is no, or more or less, or it depends on the case, the Quebec school system has a serious problem. And the government must do everything it can to fix it.
The young CAQ members are proposing to impose community service on students who damage school equipment, in order to make them understand the consequences of their actions. “If you throw a chair and break it, you’re going to fix it!” Aurélie Diep illustrated on Radio-Canada1president of the CAQ’s Commission for the Next Generation, taking up the famous “you break it, you repair it” uttered in January by the resigning French Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal2.
In theory, the idea doesn’t sound bad at all. But you still need the means to put it into practice. It won’t be enough to tell the student to figure it out with a pot of glue and pieces of chair. You’ll need a room, a time slot, a professional to supervise the student – and to figure out what made him explode to the point of throwing the chair at the end of his arms…
The most beautiful proposals in the world are not worth the paper they were written on if you don’t have the tools to implement them.
But what have we been talking about for weeks? A shortage of school staff. According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Education, there is still a shortage of 1,175 specialized education technicians (TES) in Quebec schools.
If TESs are not falling over themselves at the door, it is because, most of the time, they are offered part-time contracts. They exhaust themselves in unstable jobs where they have to put out fires and where they do not have the time to do their job properly. So, discouraged, they desert the public network.
And without TES, there is no one to help the student fix his chair, much less fix himself.
The Quebec school community did not wake up yesterday morning and say that the young CAQ members had finally found the solution to its problem. The reality is that it is doing what it can with the means it has.
Still, the proposals of the young caquistes have the merit of raising the debate. Last May, their suggestion to ban social networks for those under 16 pushed the government to set up a special commission to look into the issue this fall.
This time, the young caquistes are proposing the return of the uniform in secondary schools and the compulsory use of the formal “vous” by teachers from the 5th grade onwards.e primary school year. It’s debatable. Newer – and probably more controversial – is this idea of punishing parents for their children’s mistakes.
“Parents remain responsible for the actions of their children, and this is why we suggest that parents of students guilty of violence and bullying be required to accompany them to mandatory training to change their behavior and repair their actions,” wrote Aurélie Diep in an open letter published Thursday.3.
For parents of good will, this proposal will probably be perceived as unnecessarily guilt-inducing. After all, they too are doing their best. They too are suffering from the shortage of professionals, both in schools and in the private sector, where waiting lists are desperately long.
But there are also parents of… less good will, let’s say. Parents who don’t set limits, buy peace and leave discipline to the tablet.
There are parents who are convinced that their child is the eighth wonder of the world, the kind who would yell at a referee at the arena or demand that a teacher justify the bad grade given to their little treasure.
These parents coddle and cover their offspring, always finding excuses for them. A compulsory education at school would be beneficial to them, assuming they are willing to receive it.
It’s funny, I have my doubts…
Some parent-kings go so far that schools no longer dare to punish their children, to avoid painful disputes, or even legal proceedings. The young caquistes are perfectly right to want to put an end to this circus. They propose giving more powers to teachers to allow them to punish their students.
Yet it seems to me that teachers do not need additional powers. They do not need a policy or a law to restore peace in their classrooms. Rather, they need the unwavering support of their hierarchy, at school and at the school service center.
They also need resources to help children who break chairs. And that is a responsibility that falls to the government – the CAQ government, to be precise.
1. Read the Radio-Canada article “Young Caquists advocate the return of discipline in schools”
2. Watch the video “Gabriel Attal announces “educational work” for minors under 16”
3. Read the article from Montreal Journal “Using the formal “vous” and uniform at school: open letter from young caquistes for the return of civic-mindedness in the classroom”