The Lab-École launched its publication Building paths to school together. The launch took place in the presence of the mayor of the Canton of Shefford, Éric Chagnon, the athlete and co-founder of the Lab-École, Pierre Lavoie, the general director of the Lab-École, Dominique Laflamme, and the coordinator of the innovation and development, Elisa Verreault.
Building paths to school together is part of Lab-École’s mission to rethink the physical environment of schools to promote success and contribute to the well-being of students.
In this publication, the Lab-École team has taken a stand for the child, whatever their mode of travel: on foot, by bike, by scooter, by car or by bus. Whether he walks a few meters from the car to school or from home to school, it is the child’s action, what he sees, what he feels, what he encounters on this path, who matter, and who will encourage the adoption of active travel to school. The “paths to school” are not just physical; they are also a way of taking detours in our heads, of retracing our steps, of taking breaks, of admiring the landscape.
The expression “building together” evokes collaboration, cooperation and the pooling of multidisciplinary expertise at the heart of the spirit of the Lab-École. It also underlines everyone’s desire to work to build living environments aimed at the well-being and educational success of children.
The reader will follow William, Emma, Margot and Nassim on their way to school in order to see through their eyes what drives and borders their journey. Sometimes they explore, they play and they observe; sometimes they dream, they trot and they talk. Each time, it’s a different journey for them. Their senses are alert. Armed with the discoveries made during their travels, they arrive fully prepared and ready to learn at school.
Propose new ways of doing things
“Despite the solutions proposed, the guides put in place and the resources assigned, we see that school mobility problems persist. It is important to pause, understand and change the way you approach a situation. By imagining new ways of doing things, by refocusing the vision at the child level, we wish to collaborate in the creation of environments conducive to the development of healthy lifestyle habits,” emphasized Pierre Lavoie, co-founder of Lab-École.
Many players are working on active travel around schools. The Lab-École team does not claim to interfere in this field of expertise. Through the publication Building Paths to School Together, it instead invites municipalities, school service centers, government authorities and all adults involved in children’s lives to deploy together a new path to school.
“The Township of Shefford has taken several initiatives in anticipation of the arrival of the Zénith school, in collaboration with the community, the Lab-École team, the Val-des-Cerfs school service center, in particular. Efforts have been made to adapt and improve active transportation infrastructure (cycle paths, safe sidewalks and others) to make travel to school easier and safer. The Canton has also worked to establish a pleasant living environment for families, with parks, green spaces and safe areas for children,” recalled the Mayor of the Township of Shefford, Éric Chagnon.
“For Lab Schools to emerge, we needed to shake up the norms, to challenge preconceived ideas. We wanted to test, dare, discover, observe, listen. This exploratory dynamic, this laboratory spirit which is embodied even in our name, is bearing fruit. A new architectural vocabulary has been created and has revealed hitherto unsuspected possibilities. The idea behind the Lab-École’s publications is to share our findings, our work, our recommendations. They are not a goal: they are rather a legacy on which everyone can rely to propel the collective vision of what the school of tomorrow is, with an approach that is both rigorous and calls on all the creativity of the Quebec for children,” underlined Dominique Laflamme, general director of Lab-École.
By multiplying the paths to arrive at solutions, we imagine other ways of approaching a problem, we allow ourselves to be guided towards other paths leading to new solutions.
Support engagement and action
After thinking and acting on the following themes: the school of tomorrow, the courtyard of tomorrow and growing, cooking and eating together, the time had come to focus on the paths that lead to school. This new publication aims to support the commitment and action of partners wishing to draw inspiration and propose new ways of doing things to promote active mobility for all students.
View the publication
