Teach the Child, Not the Book
It is not new methods, a new curriculum or new technological tools that 'turns a child on' to learning, it is the rapport with the teacher
Editor's note: This is the second in a series of special reports on education in Laval, its implications for the various sectors of the city in general, and the schools on Île-Jésus administered by the island's English School Board (Sir Wilfrid Laurier), in particular. While the content of the article that follows is not specific to any school, it is a meaningful statement about the state of education in 2007. Written by Gloria Kadonoff, whose 40-year contribution to English education in Laval, both as teacher and administrator, is an outstanding example of commitment to children and respect for their right to inspirational teaching and inspired learning, the article confirms what should be clearly understood by all parents and educators – caring teachers (and parents) with a passion for teaching (and learning) set the example for the child who is 'turned on' to learning and more importantly to wanting to learn. Gloria Kadonoff recently retired from the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board. For the past five years she served as Principal of Crestwiew Elementary School in Chomedey.
Looking back
In celebrating thirty-eight years in education as I have just done, one tends to look back… just a little.
Because of a teacher shortage in the province in the early sixties it was possible, after completing high school, to attend one year of teacher training at MacDonald College and then find yourself in a classroom. (CGEPS didn’t exist at the time.)
Jobs were guaranteed. Children attended their community schools and they walked home for a lunch prepared by their mothers. The starting salary was twenty-one hundred fifty dollars a year and at eighteen I thought I was on top of the world. With all the confidence of youth I soon found myself facing a group of thirty-six nine year olds though that confidence wavered somewhat on Meet the Teacher night.
Each student had a text book for every subject taught and the teacher had a manual for these texts which explained how to present each lesson. Those manuals were our ‘Bibles’ and we took great pains to look after them for the teacher was considered to be the fount of knowledge. It surprises people today to know that we young Anglophone teachers, with only our high school French, taught French to our classes for thirty minutes each day.
Students experiencing academic difficulties usually sat at the back of the classroom, hoping not to be called upon. To lend support to these students ‘streaming’ came into vogue in the later sixties where all the children in a grade were grouped into two or three classes according to ability. No matter what name we gave to the weakest group, those in that class always knew they were in the lowest grouping which did nothing for their self esteem and their motivation to learn. Some would repeat a grade, often more than once, until eventually they ‘dropped out’ of high school and looked for a job.
New initiatives
I returned to the classroom in the later seventies after being home, without the benefit of maternity leave, with young children of my own. @R:Many positive changes awaited me including a ‘cap’ on the number of students in a class and various programs that offered small group support to children in difficulty. By this time much had been discovered about ‘learning difficulties’ and about auditory processing and work was being done to better understand such challenges as autism and fetal alcohol syndrome. The different ways in which children learn was being explored. Contained special education classes with specially trained teachers had evolved. Attendants and technicians were hired. Universities offered a more in depth program for teacher training resulting in undergraduate and masters degrees in education. Certificate programs in teaching reading and in special education were created, courses which I took over many years through McGill’s continuing education program.
Sweeping changes
New ideas and studies have brought forth more sweeping changes in education in the last ten years with the move to language based school boards, with the introduction of the Educational Reform which involves a paradigm shift from ‘teaching’ to ‘learning’ and with the development of the Individual Education Plan (IEP) for the students who require particular support in order to achieve to the best of their ability. Early intervention is now stressed and so youngsters with special needs are able to enter school at the age of four years. Because of this focus on inclusion, the contained classes, have all but disappeared.
Now technology is bringing about one of the greatest changes in the classroom and in the lives of students in general, bringing with it both its positive and negative aspects.
In these years too we are seeing the impact that changes in the family unit and in the fabric of our society itself has on youngsters. Social workers and psychologists have become a necessary part of the school scene.
School is for the child, not the child for the school
As the school bell will soon be ringing in a new year and I reflect back on the changes that have taken place in this thirty-eight year span of my career I am left with the knowledge that there is one thing that remains constant. More is expected of today’s teachers than ever before and having a ‘manual’ is no longer sufficient.
If the students are to learn from and with their teacher he and she must feel a passion for what they are doing. Children are quick to recognize this.
Nothing can replace this care – no new methods, no new curriculum, no new technological tools. For it is the rapport with the teacher, the sense of ‘attachment’, that ‘turns a child on’ to learning, to wanting to learn. The passion is essential and the understanding that we teach the child, not the book.
At the graduation exercises for that one year teacher training program I took so long ago the professor, in his address to the graduates, spoke of the need for this bonding. He encouraged us then to strive for this positive relationship with our students. It was good advice then. I believe it still stands today.
Teach 1:
Teach 2:
Teach 3:
(Photo: Martin Alarie)
Météo: Laval, 18 juillet 2008 / 19°C
/ Couvert
/ Vents: 11 Km/h / Humidité relative: 88 % 
Steven Guilbeault - Chronique environnement
Richard Cléroux - Le fouineur politique
