Part 2 (1/2)
In 1807, the Legislature took steps to carry out the plan proposed in 1797. There were by this time eight Districts in Upper Canada--Eastern, Johnstown, Midland, Newcastle, Home, Niagara, London, and Western. The sum of 800 was fixed as an annual appropriation to support ”a Public School in each and every District in the Province.” This meant 100 for each school or teacher. The Legislature also fixed the places where the schools were to be held. The Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council was to appoint not less than five trustees[14] for each District school. These trustees were given almost absolute control over the management of the schools.
[14] See D. H. E., Vol. I., p. 61.
It must not be supposed that these schools were public schools in the sense we now attach to that term. Their founders had in mind the great English public school, whose curriculum was largely cla.s.sical and whose benefits were confined to the wealthy. These schools were not in any sense popular schools. It would seem that Governor Simcoe's proposal in 1798 was to have ”Free Grammar Schools.”[15] But those established by the Act of 1807 levied considerable sums in fees. They were designed to educate the sons of gentlemen. They were to prepare for professional life. They were essentially for the benefit of the ruling cla.s.ses. They were largely controlled by Anglicans,[16] and in many cases the teachers were Anglican clergymen.
[15] See D. H. E., Vol. I., p. 20.
[16] In 1830, when the United Presbytery of Upper Canada pet.i.tioned the Legislature against appointing so many Anglicans as trustees of grammar schools, the only reply was that Anglicans had not always been appointed.
If these schools were not public schools as we now use the term ”public school,” neither were they high schools as we now use that term. The curricula had no uniformity. Each school was a law unto itself and depended almost wholly upon the teacher. If he were scholarly and earnest the school would accomplish much. Often very young boys who could scarcely read were admitted. In some schools a fine training in cla.s.sics was given; in others even the elements of a common education were neglected.
But although these schools were not for the ma.s.s of the people, their establishment was none the less an event of far-reaching importance. It was a decided advantage to the ma.s.s of the people that their rulers should have some educational advantages. No one can read the lists of names of men educated in these schools and afterwards prominent in Canadian public life without recognizing that their establishment was a blessing to the whole of Canada. They were caste schools, but they kept alive the torch of learning and civilization. Being founded out of public funds, there was created an interest in their welfare among the members of the Legislative a.s.sembly. As years went on and the members of the a.s.sembly came to really represent the people of Upper Canada, they were led to extend to all of the people such educational advantages as had been granted to a section of the people in 1807.
Several efforts were made to repeal the Act of 1807 and subst.i.tute for it one of a more popular nature. These efforts were baffled either by the Legislative Council or through the influence of that body in the a.s.sembly itself. A pet.i.tion[17] presented by sixty-five residents of the Midland District to the Legislature of 1812 will give a fair idea of the state of feeling throughout Upper Canada in regard to education: ”Your pet.i.tioners ... feel themselves in duty bound to state that 'An Act to establish Public Schools in each and every District of this Province' is found by experience not to answer the end for which it was designed. Its object, it is presumed, was to promote the education of our youth in general, but a little acquaintance with the facts must convince every unbiased mind that it has contributed little or nothing to the promotion of so laudable a design. By reason of the place of instruction being established at one end of the District, and the sum demanded for tuition, in addition to the annual compensation received from the public, most of the people are unable to avail themselves of the advantages contemplated by the inst.i.tution. A few wealthy inhabitants, and those of the Town of Kingston, reap exclusively the benefit of it in this District. The inst.i.tution, instead of aiding the middling and poorer cla.s.s of His Majesty's subjects, casts money into the lap of the rich, who are sufficiently able, without public a.s.sistance, to support a school in every respect equal to the one established by law.... Wherefore, your pet.i.tioners pray, that so much of the Act first mentioned may be repealed, and such provisions made in the premises as may be conducive to public utility.”
[17] See Journals of Legislature of Upper Canada for 1812.
A repeal bill of the Act of 1807 was pa.s.sed by the Legislative a.s.sembly of 1812, but thrown out by the Legislative Council. The Act of 1807 limited the schools to one for each District. This was unsatisfactory even to that cla.s.s for whom the schools were especially designed. As the country made progress and became more thickly populated, eight schools were a wholly inadequate provision for the education of those requiring it. But the Legislative a.s.sembly steadily resisted any attempt to enlarge the scope of these cla.s.s schools. Perhaps it was owing to their resistance that in 1816 they secured the consent of the Legislative Council to a really forward movement in elementary education.
But it would be a serious mistake to infer that the educational machinery of Upper Canada previous to 1816 was limited to these eight District Grammar Schools. What the Government failed to provide, private enterprise secured. More than two hundred schools were certainly in operation in 1816. These schools were maintained partly by subscriptions from well-to-do people and partly by fees collected from the pupils. In many cases they were private ventures, conducted by teachers who depended wholly upon fees. In some cases these schools were of a high order, perhaps superior to the District Grammar Schools; in other cases, probably in the large majority of cases, they were very inefficient.
The average fees paid by pupils in the elementary schools were about twelve s.h.i.+llings per quarter.
William Crooks, of Grimsby, writing to Gourlay, in January, 1818, says:[18] ”The state of education is also at a very low ebb, not only in this towns.h.i.+p but generally throughout the District; although the liberality of the Legislature has been great in support of the District Grammar Schools (giving to the teachers of each 100 per annum) yet they have been productive of little or no good hitherto, for this obvious cause, they are looked upon as seminaries exclusively inst.i.tuted for the education of the children of the more wealthy cla.s.ses of society, and to which the poor man's child is considered as unfit to be admitted. From such causes, instead of their being a benefit to the Province, they are sunk into obscurity, and the heads of most of them are at this moment enjoying their situations as comfortable sinecures. Another cla.s.s of schools has within a short time been likewise founded upon the liberality of the Legislative purse denominated as Common or Parish Schools, but like the preceding, the anxiety of the teacher employed seems more alive to his stipend than the advancement of the education of those placed under his care; from the pecuniary advantages thus held out we have been inundated with the worthless sc.u.m, under the character of schoolmasters, not only of this but of every other country where the knowledge has been promulgated of the easy means our laws afford of getting a living here, by obtaining a parish school.”
[18] See Gourlay's ”Statistical Account of Upper Canada.” Pages 433-434 of Vol. I. Published by Simpkin & Marshall, London, Eng., 1822.
The Common or Parish Schools referred to in this letter were the result of the legislation of 1816, a red-letter year in school affairs because it saw the first attempts in Upper Canada to give schools under public control to the common people. The sum of $24,000 a year was appropriated for four years to establish Common Schools. The law provided that the people of any village, town or towns.h.i.+p might meet together and arrange to establish one or more schools, at each of which the attendance must be not less than twenty. Three suitable trustees were to be chosen to conduct the school, appoint teachers, and select textbooks from a list prescribed by a District Board of Education. The Legislature authorized payments to each of these schools of a sum not exceeding 100. The balance needed to maintain the school had to be made up by subscriptions.
In 1819 the Grammar School Act of 1807 received some slight amendments.
The grant of 100 per school was reduced to 50 for new schools, except where the number of pupils exceeded ten. A new school was authorized for the new Gore District, at Hamilton. Trustee Boards were required to present annual reports to the Lieutenant-Governor and to conduct an annual public examination. But the most important change was provision for the free education of ten poor children at each District Public School. These children were chosen by lot from names submitted by Trustee Boards of Common Schools.
In 1822 the Governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland, on his own responsibility, had established in Toronto a school known as the Upper Canada Central School, formed on the plan of the British National Schools, which had been established in Britain by Rev. Dr. Bell. These schools were decidedly Anglican in tone, and that established in Toronto was at the instigation of Rev. Dr. Strachan.[19] In a despatch to Earl Bathurst, Colonial Secretary in 1822, Governor Maitland said:[20] ”It is proposed to establish one introductory school on the national plan in each town of a certain size. It is supposed that a salary of 100 per annum to the master of each such school would be sufficient. The number of these schools may be increased as the circ.u.mstances of the Province may require and the means allow.”
[19] See D. H. E., Vol. I., p. 176.
[20] See copy of despatch in D. H. E., Vol. I., p. 179.
In answer, the Earl of Bathurst, under date of October 12th, 1823, says:[21] ”I am happy to have it in my power to convey to you His Majesty's consent that you appropriate a portion of the Reserves set apart for the establishment of a University for the support of schools on the National [Church of England] plan of education.” This action established one school, and had in contemplation the establishment of others under the direct control of the Governor and his Council. The Legislative a.s.sembly naturally resented the action, and for two reasons.
They objected to the disposal of any Crown property other than upon their authority. They objected to anything being done that would lessen the resources of the proposed University.
[21] See copy of despatch in D. H. E., Vol. I., p. 179.
A side-light upon education in Upper Canada is furnished by Mr. E. A.
Talbot, who published a series of letters upon Upper Canada in London, 1824. I quote from Letter x.x.x: ”The great ma.s.s of the [Canadian] people are at present completely ignorant even of the rudiments of the most common learning. Very few can either read or write; and parents who are ignorant themselves, possess so slight a relish for literature and are so little acquainted with its advantages, that they feel scarcely any anxiety to have the minds of their children cultivated.... They will not believe that 'knowledge is power,' and being convinced that it is not in the nature of 'book-learned skill' to improve the earnestness of their sons in hewing wood or the readiness of their daughters in spinning flax, they consider it a misapplication of money to spend any sum in obtaining instruction for their offspring. Nothing can afford a stronger proof of their indifference in this respect than the circ.u.mstance of their electing men to represent them in the Provincial Parliament, whose attainments in learning are in many instances exceedingly small, and sometimes do not pa.s.s beyond the horn-book. I have myself been present in the Honourable the House of a.s.sembly when some of the members, on being called to be Chairmen of Committees, were under the disagreeable and humiliating necessity of requesting other members to read the bills before the Committee, and then, as the different clauses were rejected or adopted, to request these, their proxies, to signify the same in the common mode of writing.”
In 1823 there was established a General Board of Education, consisting of: The Hon. and Rev. John Strachan, D.D., Chairman; Hon. Jos. Wells, M.L.C.; Hon. G. H. Markland, M.L.C.; Rev. Robert Addison; John Beverley Robinson, Esq., Attorney-General; Thomas Ridout, Esq., Surveyor-General.