The following is a copy of the article that appeared
in the Sunday (December 30, 2001) edition of the Montreal Gazette.

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'Miss Jennifer' is a classroom idealist

ALLISON LAMPERT
Montreal Gazette

Sunday, December 30, 2001

Jennifer Lacroix, 26

Teacher

Jennifer Lacroix began her teaching career as a child, when, armed with an old spelling book, she tried to teach her neighbour how to speak English.

"I just imitated what I learned at school ... and hoped they learned English on the way," Lacroix recalled while sitting in her classroom at Pierre Elliott Trudeau School in Rosemont. "I think I always wanted to be a teacher."

Today, Lacroix not only works as a teacher, she works defending them.

When she's not showing kindergarten students how to write their names, Lacroix serves as the youngest executive member of the Montreal Teachers Association. She's also the youngest person to sit on the board of directors of the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers.

"I want to be part of the decision-making process," Lacroix said. "I want to know my rights."

Dressed in beige pants and a chunky burgundy cardigan, she admits she's somewhat of an idealist. It bothers her to see younger teachers getting stuck with a difficult workload. And it irks her when problem students fail to get tested because there aren't enough specialists around.

"It shouldn't be that way. But because of limited resources, that's what happens," she said.

Lacroix said she hopes Quebec's hotly debated curriculum reform, which groups grade levels into two-year cycles and emphasizes learning skills, will improve the system.

"That's my idealism," Lacroix said. "I think it has really good ideas. But I don't think you can impose it on teachers. It's a philosophy."

It's a philosophy Lacroix believed in, even before terms like "portfolios" became educational buzz words. While starting out as a teacher at the former Emily Carr School on Sagard St., she had her students make portfolios out of pizza boxes and fill them with the work that shows each student's progress.

Today, her students' portfolios, which are filled with their nicest paintings and handwriting samples, are stored in a folder.

"The first year was just, 'Here's a pizza box, here's all your stuff.' Now they have to choose their best work," she said. "It shows them, 'This is where you started, this is where you ended.' "

Indeed, "Miss Jennifer," as her class of 5-year-olds call her, encourages students to recognize their own accomplishments, whether they're making snowflakes out of Popsicle sticks or painting Christmas art.

What make teaching kindergarten worthwhile, she said, are her students' innocence and their sense of humour. Lacroix recalled how one girl used to imitate "Miss Jennifer" perfectly when playing school. "I used to say 'OK' a lot and she got it down to a T."

With the noon bell minutes away, Lacroix threw on a heavy sweater and got ready to pick up her students at the playground. Although recess was over, Lacroix said she didn't have a lesson planned yet for the afternoon.

"A lot of it is what they want to do," she said.

"One class wants to talk to Santa on the phone, only I haven't figured out how to do that one yet."

- Allison Lampert's E-mail address is alampert@thegazette.southam.ca