Une question d’éthique et de valeurs

Posted on October 31, 2012 by admin

Je suis directrice du programme primaire (de la maternelle à la 6^e année) du Lower Canada College et mère de trois enfants âgés de 10, 8 et 3 ans. À titre de professionnelle et de mère, je suis toujours intéressée de savoir où en sont les enseignants dans leur réflexion professionnelle. Lors d’une récente réunion du personnel du programme primaire, j’ai posé la question suivante à mon équipe d’enseignants : « S’il ne vous restait plus qu’une journée à enseigner, quel sujet souhaiteriez-vous aborder avec vos élèves? » Incroyablement, chacun d’entre eux a répondu à la question par des mots comme « respect », « compassion », « tolérance » et « intégrité ». C’était un réel plaisir à entendre!

Même si on s’attend de nos enseignants qu’ils développent continuellement les divers cours prescrits par le ministère de l’Éducation et qu’ils remplissent des bulletins de notes principalement axés sur la maîtrise des connaissances à l’égard de sujets précis, les écoles jouent également un rôle important dans l’enseignement des aptitudes sociales. En fait, ce rôle constitue même une obligation morale.

Les règles et attentes sociales à l’égard du comportement doivent faire partie du « programme indirect » de toutes les écoles et être enseignées au même titre que d’autres compétences. À moins que nous n’inculquions ces valeurs aux élèves – nos enfants – tout comme nous leur enseignons les mathématiques et la grammaire, nous ne pouvons pas nous attendre à ce que nos jeunes sachent se comporter dans les situations de la vie quotidienne, ni même qu’ils y soient préparés. En fait, comment pourrions-nous être déçus de les voir mal se comporter si au départ on ne leur a pas montré à agir autrement?

Un programme bien défini d’éducation lié au caractère contribue à créer un climat scolaire positif. Nos élèves sont nos leaders de demain et nous ne pouvons qu’espérer qu’au moment de leur remise de diplômes, ils fassent preuve non seulement de capacité intellectuelle, mais aussi de responsabilité sociale.

En mettant l’accent sur l’éducation à la fois de l’esprit et du cœur, nous veillons à ce que nos enfants soient prêts à faire face aux défis que l’avenir leur réserve avec confiance aussi bien qu’avec compassion.

Évidemment, en matière d’éducation du caractère, le soutien de la famille est essentiel, mais je me réserve le sujet du partenariat parent-école pour un futur blogue!

Yasmine Ghandour
Directrice du programme primaire du Lower Canada College et mère de trois enfants

Character Matters

Posted on October 31, 2012 by admin

I’m the director of Lower Canada College’s Junior School program (K-6) and also the parent of three children, ages 10, 8 and 3. As a professional and a mother, I’m always curious about where teachers are at in their professional thinking. At a recent Junior School staff meeting, I asked my team of teachers: “If you had only one day left to teach, what would you want to teach your students?” Interestingly, every single one of them answered the question using words like “respect,” “compassion,” “tolerance” and “integrity.” Music to my ears!

Even though our teachers are continually asked to work on developing the various courses prescribed by the Ministry of Education, and filling out report cards that focus predominantly on subject-specific mastery of skills, schools have an important role to play in teaching social skills. In fact, you might even consider it a moral obligation.

Social rules and expectations of behaviour need to become part of every school’s “hidden curriculum” and taught like any other set of skills. Unless we teach these to students—our children—as we teach them math and grammar, we simply can’t expect our young ones to know how to behave in, let alone be prepared for, real-life situations. More specifically, we cannot be disappointed in them for having behaved wrongly if they were not taught otherwise.

A well-defined character education program helps to create a positive school environment. Our students are our future leaders and our hope is that they graduate not only intellectually capable, but socially responsible too.

By putting an emphasis on educating the heart as well as the mind, we ensure that our children will be ready to meet the challenges of the future not only with confidence but also with compassion.

Of course, the support of the family in character education is also key, but I’ll leave the parent-school partnership as a topic for a future blog!

Yasmine Ghandour
Junior School Director at Lower Canada College and mother of three

When It’s OK to Drop the Ball

Posted on October 29, 2012 by admin

As a teenager in the 1970s, I remember making a few embarrassing mistakes in high school that led to consequences I didn’t like. My parents never interfered with school discipline. They believed I had “earned” whatever punished came my way. I assure you, I learned from the queasy feeling that formed in my stomach every time I let people down who I respected. In-school punishments also had their intended impact. Like all young people, I eventually learned to modify my behaviour to avoid unwanted punishments and the unsettling feelings.

We recently hosted Dr. Alex Russell at LCC. In his address to parents he reminded us that students need to feel the pain of failure. However, in his practice he sees many parents trying too hard to diminish negative consequences for their children – and soften the blow when their children intersect painfully with the real world. Dr. Russell sent a clear message: not a good idea.

As a psychologist, he has written a book called “Drop the Worry Ball: Parenting in the Age of Entitlement.” He reminds parents that making mistakes and “facing the music” is an essential part of growing up. Mistakes are an unavoidable and inevitable part of life; stressful and difficult experiences essentially help children to learn how to cope with the rough edges of the world.

In fact, Dr. Russell told parents that the only failure in life that should be avoided is what he calls “catastrophic failure.” All other screw-ups help young people learn from their experiences – so hopefully they will perform better the next time. This is what happens in schools every day. It’s a key part of learning and maturing.

In the words of Dr. Russell, parents need to “drop the worry ball” and children and teenagers need to actually pick up the worry ball – not to become overly-stressed, but to learn how to face consequences of their actions, to navigate the world through progressive independence and the satisfaction that comes from genuine achievement.

So, let’s all try and do our best and see where the worry ball lands. The kids will be all right. –Christopher Shannon, Headmaster

The Opportunity of International Day of the Girl

Posted on October 18, 2012 by admin

One of the fundamental principles at LCC is equality: equality in terms of opportunity for all students, and of course, especially between girls and boys. We want each student to have an equal voice and capacity to discover and develop personal potential.

Unfortunately, gender equality is not practiced around the world. So much so, that on October 11^th, the United Nations launched the very first International Day of the Girl. It was an effort to recognize that gender divisions do exist, but in a positive way celebrate, discuss and advance girls and their potential. On this inaugural occasion, there was a particular emphasis on the need for basic universal education, which in some cultures is often denied to girls.

It was notable that around the same time as the first International Day of the Girl, a dreadful event occurred in Pakistan that highlighted the need for such a global campaign: the shooting of 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai. She’s a Pakistani teenager – a student who has openly advocated on an Internet blog for the rights of girls to be educated in Pakistan and other countries. Shockingly, she was viciously shot in broad daylight last week as she returned home from school. The shooter was a member of the radical Taliban extremist group seeking to stop Malala and other like-minded girls from going to school and speaking out. The shooting has caused global outrage and reminds us that there is much work to be done.

Beyond this abominable reality, consider a few of the issues faced by girls in our world:

Annually millions of girls are required to leave school after only a few years and forced to move into a lifetime of domestic chores with no more education made available to them.

It is estimated that today some 70 million girls under the age of 18 – and as young as 8 or 9 – have been forced into marriages where they have little say about anything, and these girls are often victims of domestic violence. Statistics show that 25,000 girls become child-brides every single day. One in nine girls between 10 and 14 years old has been forced into marriage. Child-brides are often bought, sold and discarded at the whims of men.

Often, girls and women in many developing countries have limited access to work and a fair wage, not to mention little or no legal rights to inherit property or wealth.

Issues affecting girls are not an exclusive matter of developing countries. Studies show that in United States more than a half of all rapes of females happen before age 18. One in five high school girls in the USA has been physically or sexually abused by a dating partner.

On this front the voices of Canadian girls and boys really matter. They can be advocates and should consider ways to speak out to increase global awareness. It is possible to better girls’ lives, allow them to reach their full potential and raise the level of development and engagement in the most challenged communities in the world.

Melinda and Bill Gates are co-chairs of the Gates Foundation, which funds health and anti-poverty projects in developing countries. On the occasion of the inaugural International Day of the Girl, Melinda Gates tweeted “A girl’s potential is explosive – the sky isn’t even the limit – so pass it on.”

Please do so. – Chris Shannon, Headmaster

Round Square: A Rich Mosaic of Culture

Posted on October 17, 2012 by admin

It is rare to have the opportunity to sit in a room alongside people from five different continents, and to, over the course of an hour, have eight conversations with people from eight different countries. The conference, hosted at Herlufsholm Skole in Denmark, acted as a binding force between people from every corner of the globe: people traveled from near (England and Germany) and far (Armenia, Kenya, India, Australia, South Africa, and Canada). A beautiful blend of accents and languages could be heard echoing through the school’s halls at any given moment. We were fortunate enough to have delegates from all Round Square regions at the conference, so we knew that we had a culturally enriching experience in store for us. Personally, my participation in the conference was so incredibly different from anything that I had ever experienced. Although I have been fortunate enough to travel quite a bit in my lifetime, I had never had the opportunity to interact with so many people of my age from so many diverse places at once. I was fascinated by the rich cultures and ideas that each group of delegates brought to the conference. I loved hearing stories about their day-to-day lives. It was evident that although we all came from such different backgrounds and experiences, we were all the same in so many ways.

Several days into the conference, each group had the opportunity to display their culture in a much-anticipated cultural evening, which would prove to be a highlight of everybody’s trip. The event showcased diverse cultural features from each country, including a traditional Danish dance, a British poem recitation, an Indian yoga demonstration, a lesson on Australian slang, and many more. We were taken on a journey across the globe in just two hours. We, along with the students from Toronto, presented a reenactment of Canadian history. This particular moment in the conference truly captured one of Round Square’s central “IDEALS:” internationalism. The national pride that each group displayed, as well as international pride and appreciation for the enthusiasm of our fellow delegates, was palpable. The most incredible aspect of the evening was the lasting impression that it seemed to have on all of the participants; it sparked curiosity and desire to learn more about each culture that we were exposed to. The evening seemed to accomplish the fundamental objective of the conference: to “encounter, engage, and enjoy” the rich mosaic of culture that we were fortunate enough to immerse ourselves in for a week. — Allie Mayers ’13