Residential School Education

Sager’s paper focuses on the shift in the teaching realm from primarily male to female teachers. This feminization of teaching occurs in the later half of the nineteenth century.[1] He notes that teaching was exploitative and oppressive but could be self-affirming and empowering.[2] Sager’s paper is a speculation of why this feminization occurred during this time period, and he offers several possible explanations for it. What I found interesting in the paper was “their movement into teaching was also a movement towards material independence, intellectual self-realization, and social respectability.” [3] I find this statement contradicts what is shown in Wilson’s paper as far as the social respectability is concerned because the paper opens with a young teacher’s suicide following comments from parents in the community.[4] Wilson’s paper is really about the difficulties and dangers teachers in rural communities faced. They faced social difficulties including town gossip and no social life, as well danger from “lone prospectors passing to and fro.”[5] Sometimes a rural community was designated as a man’s school due to the living and social conditions.[6] Typically a comment such as this would upset me, but considering the isolation, danger and other difficulties of these communities at the time I find it appropriate. Both of these papers do a good job of showing what it was like for women teachers in the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

I found an interesting paper about the Coast Salish community and the challenges regarding education they faced. One elder attended two residential schools in his youth in British Columbia and a high school in Washington later on.[7] One of the residential schools that he attended was apparently “notorious for conditions of deprivation, neglect, and abuse” which is sadly unsurprising given the history of residential schools.[8] The elder noted that while he faced racism at the high school it provided “opportunities to advance his ability to take part in the social economy.”[9] This paper brought forth a comparison that I had not considered because it was a situation I had not considered and therefore provides a different perspective for secondary school after residential school for the Coast Salish people.

References

Marker, Michael. “Borders and the borderless Coast Salish: decolonising historiographies of Indigenous schooling.” History of Education, vol. 44 no. 4, 480-502.

Sager, Eric W. “Women Teachers in Canada, 1881-1901: Revisiting the ‘Feminization’ of an Occupation.” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012: 140-165.

Wilson, J. Donald. “’I Am Here to Help If You Need Me’: British Columbia’s Rural Teachers’ Welfare Officer 1928-1934.” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012: 201-222.

Citations

[1] Eric W. Sager, “Women Teachers in Canada, 1881-1901: Revisiting the ‘Feminization’ of an Occupation,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012: 143.

[2] Sager, “Women Teachers in Canada,” 143.

[3] Sager. “Women Teachers in Canada,” 157.

[4] J. Donald Wilson, “’I Am Here to Help If You Need Me’: British Columbia’s Rural Teachers’ Welfare Officer 1928-1934,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012: 202.

[5] Wilson, “I Am Here to Help If You Need Me,” 208, 210.

[6] Wilson, “I Am Here to Help If You Need Me,” 209.

[7] Michael Marker, “Borders and the borderless Coast Salish: decolonising historiographies of Indigenous schooling,” History of Education, vol. 44 no. 4, 480.

[8] Marker, “Borders and the borderless Coast Salish,” 480.

[9] Marker, “Borders and the borderless Coast Salish,” 480.

Christopher Clubine’s paper “Motherhood and Public Schooling in Victorian Toronto” is focussed on truancy in the late 19^th century. Clubine states that “it was thought that urban families relied solely on wages earned by the father” which reminded me of John Bullen’s paper from the week two readings.[1] It seems to have been a common misconception that urban families could afford to have their children attend school full-time. I found it interesting that mother’s were really the ones in charge of deciding whether the children attended school and until what age they attended.[2]

Robert McIntosh’s paper “The Boys in the Nova Scotian Coal Mines: 1873-1923” notes that a boy was generally considered to be under 18, though in the mines it was those between ages 8 and 21.[3] Death and disability due to mining accidents were not uncommon among boys.[4] During this time period, more regulation was gradually put in place to protect the boys, though they were a valuable asset to have in the mines due to their smaller size and lower wages.[5] Over time it seems to have been decided that the boys should be protected from mining accidents and instead be receiving a formal education.

For my research, I am interested in looking at comparing the education received by residential school attendees and indigenous non-attendees. This week I found a study, “The Intergenerational Effects of Residential Schools on Children’s Educational Experiences in Ontario and Canada’s Western Provinces.” Feir states that “many authors suggest that Aboriginal youths’ current educational struggles are part of the intergenerational fall-out from residential schools.[6] She also looks to the 2006 census, noting that the graduation rate for First Nations was only 50% while it was 90% for non-First Nations, which suggests that there may be a correlation between having a family member that attended residential school versus those who have no history of residential school attendance.[7] While I appreciate the information Feir provides, I think it may be too recent to fit what I am looking for, but I will look into the sources she used for more information.

References

Clubine, Christopher. “Motherhood and Public Schooling in Victorian Toronto.” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Educations, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012: 115-126.

Feir, Donna L. “The Intergenerational Effects of Residential Schools on Children’s Educational Experiences in Ontario and Canada’s Western Provinces.” The International Indigenous Policies Journal, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2016: 1-46.

McIntosh, Robert. “The Boys in the Nova Scotian Coal Mines: 1873-1923,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press: 126-139.

Citations

[1] Christopher Clubine, “Motherhood and Public Schooling in Victorian Toronto,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Educations, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012: 117.

[2] Clubine, “Motherhood and Public Schooling,” 120.

[3] Robert McIntosh, “The Boys in the Nova Scotian Coal Mines: 1873-1923,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press: 126-127.

[4] McIntosh, “The Boys in the Nova Scotian Coal Mines,” 127.

[5] McIntosh, 127.

[6] Donna L. Feir, “The Intergenerational Effects of Residential Schools on Children’s Educational Experiences in Ontario and Canada’s Western Provinces,” The International Indigenous Policies Journal, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2016: 1.

[7] Donna L. Feir, “The Intergenerational Effects of Residential Schools,” 1.

McDonald’s paper, “Egerton Ryerson and the School as an Agent of Political Socialization” focuses on the idea Ryerson had that political behaviour is learned.[1] Inspired by certain European monarchs, Ryerson wished to follow their lead and have the government show interest and concern for the interest of their own subjects.[2] In this system, Ryerson saw an “instrument to guarantee an orderly and stable society capable of containing any widespread acceptance of radical democratic ideas.”[3] Ryerson also believed that “social progress depended on harmonious and sympathetic relations among the various classes.”[4] All classes were to be educated through implementing property tax to allow to Universal Education.[5] Clearly, the idea behind providing education for Ryerson was an effort to exert control and pass upper class ideas onto the lower classes.

Ian Ross Robertson’s paper “Reform, Literacy, and the Lease: The Prince Edward Island Free Education Act of 1852” offered a different reasoning for free education. The idea was that the colonial treasury would pay the salaries of the teachers and children would not have any tuition charges.[6] There seems to have been two driving reasons behind this education act, the primary reason being a lack of literacy among those entering leases, the secondary being the inability to provide salaries for capable teachers.[7] Robertson states that “popular access to basic, primary-level education was a means to redress in part the imbalance in power between the landowners who controlled most of the Island, and the working settlers.”[8] Initially, I thought that the Free Education Act was going to be another means of control of the lower classes but was surprised to be shown otherwise. The Free Education Act was put in place for the working class and to allow them the opportunity to make informed decisions.

I found the third paper most interesting because it contradicted what I previously believed about urbanization. John Bullen’s “Hidden Workers: Child Labour and the Family Economy in Late Nineteenth-Century Urban Ontario” is about what was expected of children in lower class families in urban cities. Bullen states that “many working-class families, like their counterparts on the farm, depended on ‘the economy, industry, and moderate wants of every member of the household.”[9] He also states that “working class parents had more pressing concerns than truancy on their minds when they kept children and home.”[10] Every member of the house had responsibilities, even if it did not provide income it was necessary for the urban home to function. Each of the children had chores and duties around the house that were often gendered.[11] It was not solely on the husband of a working-class family to earn income, but also the wife and often the children. Formal education was not a priority when the family needed all of the children to help around the house or work.

In these three papers we are presented with three different views and ideas regarding education and the purpose of it. We see education as a way to control the lower classes, education as means of equality and fairness, and education taking lower priority when compared to the financial needs of the family. I think each of these papers provides a good history of Canadian education and how it initially formed and was treated. We can also see, particularly through Bullen’s paper, how attitude about the importance of education has shifted over time.

References

Bullen, John. “Hidden Workers: Child Labour and the Family Economy in Late Nineteenth-Century Urban Ontario.” Labour/Le Travail 18 (Fall 1986): 163-87.

McDonald, Neil. “Egerton Ryerson and the School as an Agent of Political Socialization,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.) Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto press, 2012: 39-56.

Robertson, Ian Ross. “Reform, Literacy, and the Lease: The Prince Edward Island Free Education Act of 1852,” in in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.) Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto press, 2012: 56-71.

Citations

[1] Neil McDonald, “Egerton Ryerson and the School as an Agent of Political Socialization,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milewski (Eds.). Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012, 39.

[2] McDonald, “Egerton Ryerson,” 45.

[3] McDonald, “Egerton Ryerson,” 45.

[4] Ibid., 48.

[5] Ibid., 48.

[6] Ian Ross Robertson, “Reform, Literacy, and the Lease: The Prince Edward Island Free Education Act of 1852,” in Sara Burke and Patrice Milweski (Eds.), Schooling in Transition: Readings in the Canadian History of Education, Toronto: Univerisity of Toronto Press, 2012, 56.

[7] Robertson, “Reform, Literacy, and the Lease,” 58.

[8] Robertson, “Reform, Literacy, and the Lease,” 59.

[9] John Bullen, “Hidden Workers: Child Labour and the Family Economy in Late Nineteenth-Century Urban Ontario,” Labour/Le Travail 18 (Fall 1986): 164.

[10] Bullen, “Hidden Workers,” 170.

[11] Bullen, “Hidden Workers,” 169.