Against all expectations, great things are happening in the most unloved high school in Montreal. Ambitious students, motivated teachers, healthy climate free of violence: the Pierre-Dupuy school, established in the Centre-Sud district, a stone’s throw from the Jacques-Cartier bridge, is becoming a success story, which defies predictions.
For five years, between 2017 and 2022, journalist Dominique Scali followed ten graduates from this school, among the most disadvantaged in the metropolis. Far from corresponding to the cliché of the young dropout who spends his days playing video games in his parents’ basement, these ten students all went to CEGEP. And even much further.
These young people have their hearts in the right place, as well as dreams and ambition: some already have a college diploma and a job, half have gone to university, including one for a master’s degree in international law (she dreams to become a diplomat) and another in dentistry — one of the most restricted programs.
These ex-students of the Pierre-Dupuy school “are light years away from the rock’n’roll label and the miserabilist cliché associated with the Centre-Sud district”, writes Dominique Scali in the essay These teenagers who make the clichés lie. X-ray of an unloved education system, which appears this week by Éditions du Journal.
“These students are the ones we never talk about, the ones who have succeeded in an environment where we are used to failure. They are ambitious, hardworking, funny, generous. And they have things to say,” adds the journalist specializing in education to Montreal Journal.
A ray of sunshine
This book comes like a breath of fresh air in an education network that is mostly talked about for the wrong reasons. We know the song: half of public schools are in poor condition, classes are left without teachers due to staff shortages, the proliferation of students in difficulty leads to teacher exhaustion, a third of boys drop out. high school before graduating…
Beyond the very real shortcomings of the public network, the school continues to fulfill its mission. It doesn’t make the headlines, but great success stories happen every day in the school system. Even at the Pierre-Dupuy school, which has a bad reputation, today unjustified.
It is the most unpopular establishment in the Montreal School Services Center: two-thirds of primary school children in the Centre-Sud choose a secondary school located outside the neighborhood (and this proportion does not take into account young people who opt for the private sector). The number of students has been steadily declining, to the point that the closure of the school has been considered. It doesn’t matter, the teenagers who attend Pierre-Dupuy find what they’re looking for.
The ten young people followed for five years by the journalist have had such an impressive career, since the end of secondary school, that Dominique Scali concludes that the choice of a school has little effect on a young person’s success.
“Our expectations are too high compared to the impact that school can have on a life. In the long term, choosing one school over another will not necessarily change your life trajectory. Not as much as we think or want, in any case,” says the author, met in a café in the city center.
Study “in nothing”
At the time the ten young people attended Pierre-Dupuy, it was an “ordinary” school. There was no particular project. And few extracurricular activities. When young people were asked “what” they were studying (sports studies? international program? music?), they replied: “Nothing. » In theory, it wasn’t the most motivating environment.
Since then, the Pierre-Dupuy school has created a technology program called Arobas, which adds spice to students’ lives. But even before the project was implemented, the ten young people loved their school. They found the teachers fantastic, committed, motivated. There were few drugs, violence or intimidation.
“These young people who have succeeded have one thing in common: their parents value education,” explains Dominique Scali. In other words, even in a completely ordinary school, in a poor neighborhood where many children have academic difficulties, students supported by their parents, or simply turned on, will still do well.
“There is a certain leveling down [à l’école Pierre-Dupuy]but young people do not complain about being surrounded by poor students: what they like less is the lack of extracurricular activities,” says the journalist.
It should be noted that four of the ten “successful” students who are the subject of this book come from immigration. Their mother tongue is not French. They face an additional challenge to succeed in school. Two others come from mixed couples (one of the two parents was born abroad).
Those who attend an “ordinary” school, however, must overcome obstacles unknown to the privileged who go to the private sector or to a public school with a special project, recalls the author: “Less than 38% of those who had started their secondary school in the regular public in 2002-2003 had entered CEGEP ten years later. In comparison, those who had attended a specific program or a private school had mostly accessed college (between 68% and 94%). »
Rise in anxiety
Dominique Scali is delighted to see more and more schools and school service centers multiplying specific projects, where students are accepted based on their motivation, and not based on their academic results.
“Shopping” for high schools that have entrance exams creates anxiety among young people. “We live in an economy that requires ranking people based on their academic performance. We are constantly evaluated in life. Part of the anxiety may be that young people have more exams than in the past,” she says.
The rise in anxiety and the increase in students with special needs may come from the transformation of society and the economy. Dominique Scali recalls that at the time of the inauguration of the Pierre-Dupuy school, in 1971, the people of the Centre-Sud district aspired to have “a good job and a good boss » in neighboring factories.
“Dropping out was not seen as a failure, but as their destiny. It was very easy to enter the job market with a primary education. Today, if you don’t “fit” the school mold, it’s considered a failure. »