Mr. Drainville, the minister of education in Quebec, announced last Thursday that next year, students will need to talk to the school staff using the “vouvoiement.” It will also be mandatory for them to refer to the teacher as “sir” and “madam” as a sign of respect.
According to the Minister of Education of Quebec, this law aims to increase respect and civism in schools. It is a law that, added to others, “will end up creating that culture of respect and civility that we want to establish in schools.”
“In case of failure to follow the rules, there must be consequences,” said Mr. Drainville, explaining that the consequences could “go from a warning to an expulsion.”
Even though this law aims to increase respect in schools, not everyone agrees with it.
The president of the SEE, David Raymond, mentioned that “less than 6% of teachers believe that this decision would have a positive impact on the level of incivility.”
According to Roch Chouinard, professor of educational psychology from l’Université de Montréal, you can be very respectful even if you use the “tutoiment” and very rude using the “vouvoiement.”
Mr. Chouinard affirmed that it should be the teacher’s responsibility to choose how their students should refer to them. “I think we are getting into something that is going to be extremely difficult to implement, and in the end, won’t bring many positive results.”
“They think it makes no sense for the minister to dictate how they should interact with students,” declared Richard Bergevin, president of the Quebec Federation of Teachers’ Unions (FSE-CSQ), after
receiving multiple calls from unhappy teachers. “Instead of coming up with new rules, we would like Mr. Drainville to convey his wishes to the schools and allow each environment to determine the best actions to take,” he added.
