An alternate to the zoo

Photo courtesy

Sylvain Dancause

Saturday, February 3, 2018 05:00

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Saturday, February 3, 2018 05:00

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You have already watched the film A cop in kindergarten ? If your popular culture is lacking, it is a classic that tells the story of the nightmare inspector John Kimble. Mission requires, this brute needs to learn how to manage a classroom without any teaching experience.

After the report Exhausted after a month in the shoes of a substitute for primary and secondary school, the memory of the trailer starring Schwarzy has arisen in my memory.

Stories of suppléances, I could tell stories for hours : funny, sad, unbelievable… It would be possible to conclude that the reaction of a group in the face of the fresh meat (in) medium rare is relatively constant for the past 25 years.

Photo Simon Clark

Sylvain Dancause is a high school teacher for nearly 25 years. He also keeps a personal blog on education since 2015, and he contributes to the Blog of the teachers of the Journal for 2016

Knowing that the relationship a teacher has with his students is equal to 40 % of the power and influence that it has in its interventions with youth with behavioural difficulties, it is hardly surprising that most of the alternates in the drool a shot.

What is the problem then ?

A course painful

The story of this journalist is that the preamble to the real drama experienced by thousands of teachers.

In effect, the deputy knew that his nightmare would end soon. She has not had to think about the real risk that his ordeal continues. She has not had to live through the painful and humiliating questioning his choice of career.

To understand the current situation, it would be necessary to test the guinea pig for five years.

The torture of the water drop.

Because in real life, if you manage to survive at the zoo in the contingency, you will then have to pass through the jungle of poverty. A road strewn with obstacles that sometimes leads to dropping out : “The average quit rate varies between 25 % and 30 % after the first year and rises to 50 % after five years” (Review of sciences of education of McGill, 2017).

You’re a survivor ? The permanence is waiting for you.

However, we should not rejoice too quickly. Warriors can still fall, because “the burnout of the teachers concerned by the prevalence of the order of 20 %” (Janosz, université de montréal, 2017).

And me ?

Veni, vidi, vici

I did my first locum at the dawn of my 20 years in the 1990s. I have lived the precarious situation in six different schools. I have taught in public and private sectors. Students of all shapes and sizes.

I still love my job and my expiration date has not yet arrived. However, even for an old road in my genre, the job is more difficult than my first. And, make no mistake, this is not because of the appearance of white hairs in my beard.

Several elements have changed in this fucked up education system. I believe that the tipping point lies somewhere between 2000 and 2010. I submit, in bulk, my observations :

• The common good has given way to the right of the individual ;
• The utilitarian view the eclipse, that so-called liberal ;
• The commodification has had a meteoric rise ;
• The fierce competition has led to a proliferation of specific programs ;
• The school is seen as a private good. The client (parent-child) is always right ;
• The integration to the utmost of struggling students and the explosion in the number of intervention plans ;
• The team of professionals at the service of the pupil has been decimated by the cuts. Intervention interdisciplinary early and adequate is the exception rather than the norm ;
• Many parents resign from their role, or simply overprotecting their children. The cyberdépendance has made its appearance.

Other times, other manners

“It is time for a change !” said the party’s slogan of Jean Lesage in 1960. With the publication of the Parent report and the creation of the ministry of Education, Quebec, lived his quiet Revolution.

For the idealists among you, please note that during the last election campaign of 2014, a survey CROP-Radio-Canada revealed that 5 % of voters mentioned education (and the environment) as a priority. Far behind economic issues (36 %) and health (35 %).

According to Mandela, education is the most powerful weapon that one can use to change the world.

The problem of my world, it is that he does not want to change.

It’s called the Revolution static.