I am here, hidden discreetly at the back of the class, also behind my screen, out of habit of avoiding interaction situations with my peers. I am well aware of the problem, I see it, I experience it daily and I suffer from it like you, dear teacher.
Between these four classroom walls, I listen to your course with so much interest, curiosity, thirst to learn about the very interesting issues of our funny world. Learn for pleasure, for yourself, for the collective well-being and not under the pressure of the ugly R rating.
I try to listen among the infinite distractions of this environment which is not at all conducive to learning: my colleague in front of me who is “taking notes on his laptop” – whose only open tab displays an insignificant little game –, the sound of notifications of the person behind me planning their next partyand the two to my right, head relaxed on the desk, taking advantage of the class to do a power nap.
I am there, present in this room created by the same architect hired to build any penitentiary, without windows.
I put aside for you, dear teacher, my social anxiety to be one of the three or four people engaged in the discussion of the course and answer questions in order to avoid the stifling weight of the silence of a classroom.
However, if we wish not only to succeed, but also to learn about the world, about our society and about ourselves, we cannot spend these apparently formative years with our heads down, subject to our cell phones.
Despite all this, I feel recharged every week thanks to this course which motivates me to imagine a more equitable society, aware of current issues. Those who, even behind a screen or when we sleep, cannot escape us.
The best years
I have always been told that CEGEP is formative, that these are the best years of our lives, that we learn who we really are and that friendships at CEGEP are the most important. Unfortunately, as a student at the end of her DEC, I see that all this is wrong for many students and that this path is much less attractive in reality. The feeling of social isolation has never been more present than in a class with 40 other students.
I wish I had been born in the time not so long ago when creating meaningful friendships in college was a matter of course.
Rather, I am in a time of social transition where a generation of students has lost the desire to educate themselves. In 2024, it is a minority who really want to learn, simply for the pleasure of accumulating knowledge and to acquire knowledge.
To you, dear teacher, know that I am here, that I am grateful to you for continuing despite all the challenges of students of my generation. And to you, dear class colleague, by putting away your cell phone, writing your notes by hand and taking part in the educational activities offered to you, you will see that school is not as dull as that and that you can find your place there.
1. Read “Cell in Class: Where Are You, My Beautiful Student?” »
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reference: www.lapresse.ca