CSDM won’t budge on Petits chanteurs
Till recently, the CSDM had an arrangement with the Petits chanteurs du Mont-Royal, a boys’ choir not unlike ones in the UK, where boys with good voices willing to work on their music can sing their way into a better-than-average education. In this case, the school board paid the same fee for the boys that it would’ve done to educate them in the public system, so that they could study at Collège Notre-Dame opposite the Oratory and practice music in the same location.
Now the board, determined to philistine it out to the bitter end, intends to shut this down, and make it so the boys have to go to public school and shuttle back and forth from distant locations. Various high-profile cultural nabobs have signed an open letter deploring the decision, but to no effect.
jeather 12:30 on 2019-05-30 Permalink
I’m puzzled, because it’s not clear to me what was paid for this. The government pays, via the school board (for some reason), but . . . does it pay regular tuition to the school or does it pay full fare? Are there equivalent programs for girls? Is this really available to any boy, and particularly boyswho couldn’t afford private school?
I’d like a lot more detail.
Kate 12:48 on 2019-05-30 Permalink
As I understand it, the board has been giving the private school the same amount it would cost for the education of the students on the public side. I’ve never heard of any equivalent here for girls and it isn’t available to everyone – it’s specifically a kind of scholarship for boys with a good singing voice.
jeather 13:07 on 2019-05-30 Permalink
It isn’t clear to me that the tuition paid is only the public equivalent, but the board is paying nothing either way, apparently.
Well, sure, boys who can sing, but I mean: is it really available to all boys with a good singing voice, or is it mostly going to wealthy non-immigrants? Can they come from any school? Do we want the government to pay for these kinds of programs only for boys (I don’t object if they have single-sex boys and single-sex girls, and it’s entirely possible they do and I don’t know about it)?
This seems like a nice program, and I am all for more arts-type schools, but I’m not sure the system this one has makes the most sense.
dwgs 13:11 on 2019-05-30 Permalink
When my eldest was in elementary school at Ecole NDG someone came around from that school scouting talent, I remember him telling me about it, one of his friends made the move.
jeather 13:36 on 2019-05-30 Permalink
Scouting from all the CSDM public schools seems reasonable enough.
Kate 16:22 on 2019-05-30 Permalink
The La Presse piece says: “Les 210 garçons qui forment le choeur bénéficiaient d’une entente leur permettant d’aller au Collège Notre-Dame à rabais, le ministère payant les droits de scolarité des élèves à la CSDM.” Which I take to mean the students get a deal: a private school education which the ministry subsidizes only to the extent it costs normally to educate a student on the public side.
Whether the school gets additional cultural funding to cover this I do not know. It’s a kind of scholarship grant.
jeather 21:11 on 2019-05-30 Permalink
The CSDM seems to have a public elementary school for the choir, and wants now to have a setup in a public high school and as such aren’t interested in making it convenient to go to a private school. I just don’t feel this is the end of culture in this city.
I don’t read that as the ministry getting the discount but the parents, who pay nothing, though I think it’s ambiguous.
Andrew 23:33 on 2019-05-30 Permalink
According to their website, tuition for the choir is $1200 a year, so not just for anyone who can sing. It was founded expressly for the purpose of performing at the Oratory and they still do 70 times a year. I’m thinking it’s not just an arts program, but more a relic from the catholic school board that predated the CSDM. As long as the teachers don’t wear any religious symbols while they’re teaching the kids hymns I guess?
jeather 07:46 on 2019-05-31 Permalink
Don’t be silly, they’re cultural hymns.
Ian 14:39 on 2019-05-31 Permalink
@jeather golf clap. Well played.
At my daughter’s school (FACE) they have a mandatory choir program, and yes, there were Jesus songs for the end of school year concert. As always.