In 2022, there has been a lot of talk about college education, mainly to deplore the shortcomings in French and general knowledge of young CEGEP students.
Some offer more support and support measures. With us, it's coded language to further lower the demands and treat them like children.
Others suggest dividing students into strong classes and regular classes. It is not true, they say, that those with difficulties improve by contact with the strong.
Radical ?
I have a friend, a CEGEP teacher, a fan of a radical approach.
Let’s set high standards for entry, he says, and just face the consequences.
I write this and immediately realize that I am calling it “radical” to simply accept that higher education is not for everyone.
In Quebec, it is indeed an idea perceived as “elitist”. No Minister of Education will go down this road. Never.
The question still arises: what if we told ourselves stories by imagining that higher education is within everyone's reach (provided of course that we don't continually lower the requirements in order to pretend that the answer is yes )?
Now here is a true story.
A few years ago, in the university where I teach, I was asked to design an introductory course to Quebec society for students who wanted to be brought up to speed before they started the first university cycle.
I did not invent the wheel. I have offered an overview of the basic facts of our history.
Here are excerpts from student responses (I have kept the mistakes):
As they say, just because you laugh doesn't make it funny.
Beads
Obviously, I do not claim that the students who wrote this are a representative sample of the average level.
It's kind of my equivalent of Guy Nantel's vox pop. These are pearls chosen deliberately.
But the fact remains that these students do exist and are destined for university studies. Is this their place?
I know, I know, a taboo question, like so many others in our education system.
One thing is certain, the dumbing down, we have tried it. We see the results.
I wish you a happy new year 2023.
