“The Reserve of Courage: Why Education Reforms Lack Boldness”

The suggestion was brushed aside as quickly as it was made. No question of reopening the file of an Order of Professors.

“I do not currently have the means to embark on the creation of a professional order,” said the Minister of Education. Reading here is too complicated, too litigious.

The CAQ has already given up on this flagship promise. It is not in the middle of a union confrontation over the next collective agreement that the government is going to risk political capital.

Unfortunately, the famous reserve of courage is of little use in education.

Just talk about it…

Between robbed unions, a Professions Office which did not see the need for it in 2002 and the hope that a new Student Ombudsman will fill the void, the government does not want to reopen such a Pandora’s box.

Moreover, if all these actors “had gone to bat” for the children, it would have been a long time since Ms. Chantal had been placed out of harm’s way, even without an Order of Professors.

However, Ms. Chantal fell between the cracks.

And it is this sad reality that justifies maintaining the idea that a professional order might have succeeded where the system failed. Not to settle the debate, but at least to think about it.

But no. Minister Bernard Drainville must deliver rapid progress.

Classroom aid, shortage of teachers, special programs, more school renovations… Accessible priorities that have a consensus among teachers AND parents.

Good ideas, certainly, but we are far from the reserve of courage.

And the real deals?

Because during this time, there is no question of diving into the heart of the problem(s).

Why are so many teachers leaving the profession? Does the integration of students with special needs ask too much of them?

Without the adequate resources promised, it is hard to expect a teacher to manage students who have behavioral challenges, those who are loveable but have ADHD or dyslexia or both, those who piss off because they have a high intellectual potential, the tanners and the others.

But no. That would be to admit that this wonderful idea in theory does not work in our three-tier system.

And speaking of the three speeds, the private, the contingent public and the normal, that too, one day, it will be necessary to burst the abscess!

Certainly not ! The middle class has the means to pay for private schools to give their offspring one more chance. Then the broke-but-brilliant, the sportsmen, the enthusiasts find their account in the particular programs.

That’s too many voters to dare to tap into the reserve of courage. Moreover, the abolition of school boards, the confrontation with Saint Sophie-Brochu, and above all, the third link have seriously drained it.

Finally, Education, François Legault insists that it is his priority of priorities. It’s just unfortunate that she doesn’t deserve most of his reserve of courage.

Bernard Drainville is due to table his reform shortly in the form of a bill. It would be a good time to show that the skin of shagreen is not exhausted.