The success of as many students as possible in school is a goal shared by all. Unfortunately, more and more young people, especially boys, seem to find it more difficult to do so.
Consequently, all stakeholders working in schools, parents, the population and the MEES are proposing various solutions to correct the situation: making learning more active, project-based teaching, planning more physical activity, increasing the hiring of teaching staff masculine, or others.
However, the words “efforts, work, concentration, resilience” are absent from the speeches heard or read in the various media. Learning, it should be remembered, is a voluntary and conscious act. To succeed, you have to put in the effort, you have to work. So how do you convince students, especially boys, to do what it takes to succeed?
Family
In my opinion, everything should start in the family environment. Why not empower children to participate in household chores, such as helping with snow removal, washing dishes, or others? In addition, placing great importance on education and reading would be a good start for young people in families. There are so many beautiful books aimed at a young audience.
At school, I think it would be better to emphasize more the efforts of the students, instead of relying solely on academic results.
In addition, students should be taught various learning strategies, such as study time management, classroom listening, concentration, and memorization. In my opinion, it is essential to make students more responsible for their learning.
On the other hand, it would be better to stop making students believe that they are in school only to pass exams. Students often think of school as having two purposes: their assessment and their learning. However, students who think that their teachers are more concerned with evaluating their performance, instead of monitoring their progress, will be less motivated and more fearful to invest in their learning.
On the other hand, students convinced that school is primarily a place of learning will not hesitate to make efforts, will not be afraid of making mistakes and will want to develop their skills. In terms of academic motivation, the more students believe that school goals correspond to learning objectives, the more likely they are to engage, participate and persist in striving. are high.
Inspiration
Also, it would be good to invite personalities from different backgrounds, such as sports, music, theatre, science, literature, so that they can tell young people about their journey. Similarly, young people should read inspiring stories of different historical figures who left us with a heritage of knowledge that is still useful today.
We must convince young people to learn what they do not want and do not know; they must be led to ask themselves questions that they do not ask themselves; it is our duty to encourage them to set and achieve new personal goals.
Robert Durocher
Retired high school science teacher, author of the book Enseigner avec passion (Editions Crescendo) and director of the collective Portraits of remarkable women and men (Editions JFD)
St. Jerome
