Oldal 184 [184]
OCR
DERVILA COOKE she initially asks them to consider: "Croyez-vous étre complétement intégrés dans la culture québécoise?” [“Do you feel you are completely integrated into Québec culture?”]. Initially only about one third of the class moves to the side of the room designated for those who answer “Yes”, but eventually almost two thirds do, once Tardif rephrases without “complétement” in her question. After an impassioned discussion, the students eventually resort to following dictionary definition from Le Petit Larousse: “Intégration: opération qui consiste a assembler les différentes parties d’un systeme et a assurer leur compatibilite ainsi que le bon fonctionnement du systeme complet” [Integration: an operation consisting of assembling the different parts of a system while ensuring they are compatible and that the system will function well as a whole]. Several students remain on the “No” side, in terms of any integration, including the black boy who wants to remember the country in Africa he left at the age of five but who cannot; the girl who feels a strong attachment to Hong Kong, and who feels “integrating” means she must lessen that attachment; and the black girl who doesn’t feel she can integrate, even if she wanted to. Another student of South Asian extraction speaks of her parents as “obstacles” to her integration, because they insist on retaining their way of doing things. A reflective and articulate boy (apparently from South East Asia) is one of the most vocal in the class. He becomes frustrated with those who insist that they are being expected to give up their attachment to their memories and home cultures if they “integrate”. He declares that he wishes to learn as much about Québec as he can (even soap operas: “les teleromans”), and speaks of the importance of being willing to adapt (“sadapter”), without necessarily losing what one has. It is tempting to view this boy as a spokesperson for Godbout’s own views, but divergent voices are aired also, following Godbout’s aforementioned wish to “donner la parole aux immigrants”. TRAUMA, RESILIENCE, AND VULNERABILITY: GODBOUT, GROULX AND BERTUCELLI In one of the classes d'accueil filmed in Godbout’s film, a teacher of Italian heritage says that he admires the children he teaches, praising their level of maturity and their hard work and ability to acquire French relatively speedily. He feels this is particularly praiseworthy in a context where many students have been separated from parents or important family members in their migration, or have experienced the traumas of war. It is a commonplace of child education to hear that “children are resilient”. However, this is true only up to a point. Whereas Québec society may previously have assumed that all children are resilient, to the detriment of people like Tihana and Courtney + 182 +
