The teacher I will remember

We all have a teacher who left an impact on us. A teacher who knew how to awaken our curiosity and pushed us to surpass ourselves.

Mine is called Jean-Marc Leduc. This column aims to introduce it to you — by inviting you, readers, to describe yours to us.

However, this text almost never saw the light of day. When I contacted “Mr. Leduc,” as we called him in high school, to grant me an interview, he initially refused outright. I had to use all my powers of persuasion to convince him.

“It bothers me,” he tells me once the meeting is scheduled at Collège Saint-Hilaire, where he taught for 35 years before hanging up his chalk, in 2022. I have plenty of colleagues here who work hard. When the spotlight is only on me, it makes me uncomfortable. »

When he tells me that he also believes that an article paying tribute to a former teacher is a “slightly worn-out formula”, I suddenly feel like his student 30 years ago who would have chosen the wrong subject for his oral presentation.

Jean-Marc Leduc was 26 years old when I had him as a teacher, in secondary school. He taught a subject that the school traditionally valued, but which didn’t have much to excite the young teenagers like us: Latin.

This giant of almost two meters with a deep voice was able to capture our attention in a way that few teachers know how to do, both for Latin variations and for history (his specialty).

Mr. Leduc wants to say that the students contributed to the relationship he was able to build with them.

“In my career there have been these states of grace, these magical moments of collaboration,” he says. Episodes where we managed together to rise above the fray to do something good. »

To illustrate his point, Mr. Leduc launches into an art that he masters brilliantly: telling a story. This one, which I had forgotten, dates back to my fourth year of secondary school.

In our small school, the students always stayed in the same room and it was the teachers who paraded in front of them. However, in class 402, a solid mess had set up.

“A cow would have lost its calf,” says Mr. Leduc.

In the morning, the young teacher lectures his students and loses his temper. Without thinking, he threatens to come back at the end of the day and throw everything on the floor and desks.

“During the day, I have time to calm down,” he says. And to realize that if I don’t want to lose my credibility, I must follow through with my threat. »

Except that the teacher can’t see himself throwing away school materials. After the students leave, Mr. Leduc pushes the door of 402, his green bag in hand, dreading what he will see there.

“It’s quite a spectacle that awaits me,” he says. I had made it clear that I was going to throw everything that was on the floor and on the desks. There is nothing on the ground. Immaculate. And on each desk, there is only one thing: the textbook for the history course I teach. »

“I burst out laughing by myself in the class,” he says. The next day, in front of the students, everyone burst into laughter. “And then I said to myself: my God, you are lucky. When I talk about a communion of spirit between a teacher and students, a complicity, I think of that. It’s been 30 years and I still remember it. »

His recipe for gaining students’ trust was simple: take an interest in them. At the start of the year, he had students fill out a sheet with questions about their qualities, their faults, their goals, their passions, their best friends.

“I took the time to read this. Once I had that basic information, I could use it, quote unquote,” he says.

I remember that Mr. Leduc was the one we went to see when we were looking for an attentive ear. It hasn’t changed. Over the decades, the issues have obviously evolved. In her last year of teaching, a student came to ask Mr. Leduc for advice on how to announce her gender transition.

“I’m a history teacher!” he recalls. But when someone trusts you like that, you don’t want it to go wrong. I consulted the health service here. I was referred to external resources. I spoke to a former student who was an alumna. I tried to put in place the best intervention net possible. »

As for his talent for capturing students’ attention, he admits to using tricks.

And humor, always present in his classes? “With humor comes relaxation, and with relaxation comes peace of mind,” he says. Humor is a spice. You have to put some on. But you should not exceed the recommended dose. »

Mr. Leduc will tell me many other stories that unfortunately I will not be able to relate all of them here. The most moving concerns a former student who became a beneficiary attendant who took care of Mr. Leduc’s dying mother.

He came across her while he was emptying his mother’s room in the residence she occupied.

“All she did was open her arms. And I cried for my mother in the arms of my former student,” he says.

“I was a winner double, triple,” he concludes of this story. We invest ourselves in this profession, but it is never one-way. »

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